Tordarroch
Township (Post Medieval)
Site Name Tordarroch
Classification Township (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Lackenown
Canmore ID 13231
Site Number NH63SE 48
NGR NH 6800 3333
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13231
- Council Highland
- Parish Daviot And Dunlichity
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH63SE 48 6803 3335
This settlement consists of a linear spread of rectangular buildings and field boundaries. All of the walls are very collapsed and have been robbed to build later field dykes; they generally are no more than a grassed over spread of stone c. 2.0-3.0m wide and no more than 1.0m high. In all, eight structures have been identified. For details, see report.
Information from S T Driscoll 1989 (see archive MS/550, 6)
Project (July 1989)
Pre-afforestation survey undertaken in Tordarroch, Davoit and Dunlichty, Inverness, commissioned by Historic Buildings and Monuments, Scottish Development department.
S T Driscoll, 1989.
Field Visit (5 November 1992)
About 380m ESE of Tordarroch House there are the remains of a township comprising at least four buildings, clearance cairns and the remains of field banks.
Three of the buildings (USN93 210, 219-20) are grouped around the remains of an enclosure. They are all aligned approximately N-S, and range from 12.1m to 17.5m in length by 4.9m to 6m in breadth over walls spread to as much as 1.6m in thickness. USN93 210 has a bedneuk projecting from its E side; to the N of this building there is the end of what may have been an earlier building, while 14m to the E is a small pen.
The fourth building (USN93 211) lies about 200m to the NE at NH 6820 3343, across boggy ground. It measures 12.5m from N to S by 5.8m over a stony bank spread to 1.1m in thickness. Immediately to the S of this, there is a single small pit, probably for storage. A stony bank runs NNE from the main group of buildings for about 240m, before turning towards the NW and dying out as it approaches an improved field. Around the point where it turns, there are a number of field clearance heaps, as described under NH63SE 45. To the SW of the buildings further stretches of bank define at least one field, which also contains a scatter of clearance heaps (NH63SE 46).
Two buildings identified by Driscoll (1989, 6, 1a and 1b) in this area are probably quarry scoops associated with the construction of a later drystone dyke. A map of Tordarroch, dating to c.1804, depicts a settlement here named 'Lackenow'. Three buildings are shown, on the edges of an enclosure, probably USN93 210 and 219-20 (SRO: RHP 1047). The first edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, 1875, sheet xx), shows two buildings, one roofed (probably USN93 210) and one, to the N of it, unroofed. They are not named. This settlement is not depicted on the second edition of the map (1905).
(USN93 210-11, 219-20).
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 5 November 1992.
