Leachonich

This site was included within the RCAHMS Emergency Survey (1942-3), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, vary from short notes to lengthy and full descriptions and are available to view online with contemporary sketches and photographs. The original typescripts, manuscripts, notebooks and photographs can also be consulted in the RCAHMS Search Room.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 10 December 2014.

Lechanich NH 681 854 NH68NE 13

This broch occupies the summit of a knoll and measures 18.5m in diameter over a wall 4.6m thick. The entrance lies on the ESE and there may be a guard-chamber on the S side of the passage.

RCAHMS 1979, visited September 1978

(Watson 1904, 31)

NH68 2 LECHANICH ('Leachonich')

NH/6812 8546

Probable broch in Edderton, Easter Ross, situated on top of a rise with a wide view; it now consists of a mound of tumbled stones [1]. A few base stones of the outer wallface survive and indicate an overall diameter of 18.5m from north-east to south-west, and a short stretch of inner face on the north-east indicates a wall thickness of 4.6m here. There are traces of an intramural cell on the south; it may be a guard chamber since the entrance passage is visible on the east-south-east. The passage seems to be about 4.7m long and one door-check can be seen 3.2m from the exterior [1]. In 1904 the site was said to have been 6 or 7ft high, and to have had chambers, within living memory [2].

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NH 68 NE 13: 2. Watson 1904, 31: 3. Graham 1947, 96: 4. RCAHMS 1979a, 23, no. 186.

E W MacKie 2007

NH 67966 85497 (centred on) Work on 3–14 August 2009 aimed to establish the nature and extent of any archaeology likely to be affected by the refurbishment of an overhead line extending from the Edderton Police Station Mast at Leachonich to Upper Leachonich. The following sites were noted during the assessment and

walkover survey.

NH 68120 85455 Leachonich Broch (F1) This feature (SAM 4962), was identified on the HHER and during the

survey. It was found to be as recorded by the OS in 1970.

NH 6800 8550 Farmstead, Leachonich (F2) This feature was identified on the HHER and during the survey. The

farmstead, now known as Upper Leachonich, is represented on the 1st Edition OS 6" map (1879–81) as consisting of one unroofed and six roofed buildings and two enclosures and as one roofed and two unroofed buildings on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map (1971). Feature 2 is now the site of an occupied house. The remains of a double-celled unroofed building were identified to the NNW of the main house. Only the ENE and WSW facing gable ends and the NNW facing wall remain, to 1.3m high.

NH 6783 8555 Stone, Leachonich (F3) A stone is marked on the 1st Edition OS map, but no further information is

given.

NH 6749 8552 Farmstead (F4) This L-shaped deserted farm with a cobbled area measuring c2m in diameter may be a stack-stand and was visited by RCAHMS in 1978.

NH 6830 8580 Lynchet, Cultivation remains (F5) These cultivation terraces are visible on a SE-facing slope in

the vicinity of chambered cairns. They were recorded as covering an area, 100m from NE-SW by c40m transversely, by the OS in 1981.

NH 6846 8583 Chambered Cairn, Leachonich (F6) This Neolithic (4000–2401 BC) chambered cairn is protected as part of SAM 2390.

NH 6842 8594 Chambered Cairn, Leachonich (F7) This Neolithic chambered cairn is the second of a pair protected as part of SAM 2390. It was last recorded by the OS in 1963.

NH 6830 8590 Clearance Cairn (F8) On a SE-facing slope, several stone clearance heaps and occasional lynchets were recorded by the OS in 1970.

NH 6824 8601 Site, Neolithic (F9) Recorded on the HHER, no further information is given.

NH 6820 8589 Chambered Cairn, Leachonich (F10) This Neolithic chambered cairn was recorded during a visit by the OS in 1975.

NH 68122 85665 (approx) Possible feature (F11) This mound at the very eastern extent of the proposed overhead line, on the SE-facing slope on which the Neolithic features identified above can be found. The area has been colonised by gorse which may obscure archaeological remains. It was not possible to fully survey this feature.

The features all lay outside the proposed overhead line area, or sufficiently far from the poles to be refurbished

for there to be no risk either to their integrity or to any associated buried archaeology.

Archive: RCAHMS. Report: HHER and Library Service

Funder: Scottish and Southern Energy PLC

Cait McCullagh – Highland Archaeology Services Ltd