Leataidh

NC60NE 2.05 6941 0494

This township is centred on the northern edge of a broad grassy terrace above the NE bank of the Abhainn Leataidh. Nine buildings, eight smaller huts and outhouses, a corn-drying kiln and several small enclosures were recorded, most of them grouped in a central cluster around NC 6941 0494, although there are outliers to the N, NE and W. To the NE of the central group the ground is boggy, to the S it has been improved, and no evidence of rig cultivation survives there, but to the NW, where the terrace narrows, a band, about 100m broad, of well-preserved rigs stretches towards the buildings described under NC60NE 2.03. Seven unroofed buildings and three enclosures are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheets xcvi).

The main concentration of structures comprises six buildings, six outhouses or huts, a corn-drying kiln and four small enclosures. All but one of the buildings measures internally between 9.6m and 16.4m in length and between 2.4m and 3.2m in breadth; the exception, a three-compartment structure at the N edge of the group (ROG95 737), measures internally 22.6m by 3.4m. They are mostly built with rubble walls, standing up to 0.6m high, and square corners, although two buildings (ROG95 746-7) are built of turf and stone. Three buildings are divided into two compartments, and one of these (ROG95 747) has a bedneuk in the S side of its E compartment and a byre-drain in its lower W compartment; there is also a byre drain in the W end of the three-compartment building (ROG95 737). One building (ROG95 739) has opposed entrances in its S compartment, that to the E opening into a yard; presumably it served as a barn. The six huts measure internally between 4m and 5.5m in length and between 2m and 3.1m in breadth; three of them are rubble-built while three have turf walls. The kiln (ROG95 735) stands at the N edge of the group. It has a bowl about 1.8m in diameter and at least 0.9m deep within a collapsed and overgrown wall. It is set into rising ground on the N and there is a barn attached on the S which measures internally 2.7m by 2.2m.

About 150m to the N of this group, in bracken-covered ground close to the head-dyke, there are two more buildings a hut, and the remains of at least three enclosures. The largest building (ROG95 732, NC 6940 0516) is a bow-sided structure measuring 19.9m in length by 3m in breadth within rubble walls up to 0.5m high. It appears to have had two compartments with a bedneuk on the N side of the E compartment and the entrance on the S side of the lower W compartment, just above the head of a byre drain which runs to the SW corner of the building. The building stands at the SW corner of an enclosure, the W wall of which utilises part of the wall of a hut-circle (NC60NE 2.10). The second building (ROG95 733), which stands about 20m to the SW, measures 9.7m by 2.4m internally and is divided into two compartments. It has a yard attached on its ESE side and it may have had opposed entrances, which would indicate use as a barn. The hut (ROG95 734) is situated about 60m SE of the larger building, on the line of the head-dyke which abuts its N and E corners; it measures 5.2m by 2m within rubble walls up to 0.3m high.

Two outlying structures remain to be noted. The first is a hut about 120m SE of the hut just described (ROG95 748 at NC 6956 0507). It measures 5.5m by 2.5m within walls reduced to stony banks and it also appears to abut the head-dyke. The other structure is a building, measuring 7.4m by 2.4m internally, on the edge of the deciduous woodland to the WNW of the core of the township (NC 6921 0504, ROG95 723).

(ROG95 723, 732-48)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 21 June 1995