Loch Tromlee

NN02NW 33 centred on 0468 2587

NN02NW 33.01 NN 0450 2565 Loch Tromlee Farmstead; Hut

The core of this township is situated in a gully that runs NE from the N end of Loch Tromlee between two rocky ridges. The township comprises at least six buildings, all constructed largely of turf, including a kiln-barn, and a small enclosure. A seventh building, constructed of stone, may be the remains of a later farmstead and is described separately (NN02NW 33.01). There are several stretches of bank in this area but, apart from that described under NN02NW33.01, most of these appear on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet c) and are probably associated with a later period of sheep farming.

Four of the turf buildings are situated towards the head of the gully between NN 0466 2586 and NN 0472 2589. Three of them (LORN96 237-9) appear to have been byre-houses, each with its long axis running downhill and traces of a drain in its lower half. These three measure between 9.6m and 11.7m in length and between 3.4m and 4.3m in breadth within walls spread 1.2m in thickness and no more than 0.4m in height. The fourth building, at the NE edge of the group, is much smaller, measuring 5.7m by 3.3m within a wall spread to 1.6m in thickness (LORN96 236); to the W of it there is a turf mound, which is possibly the remains of another building. There is a small turf enclosure between two of the buildings (LORN96 237 and 238), and the traces of banks to the W and NE of the group may be the remains of a larger enclosure.

The fifth turf building (LORN96 240) is situated at NN 0446 2572, on the NW side of the gully and about 250m to the SW of the group described above. It measures 8.7m by 2.7m over walls reduced to little more than low banks, and it is divided into two compartments; the NW compartment, which has an entrance in its SW wall, is situated on level ground, while the SE compartment slopes downhill. The kiln-barn (LORN96 243) is set on sloping ground on the same ridge, about 100m to the SW at NN 0438 2566, and its walls have been reduced to banks 0.9m thick and 0.3m high. Measuring 9.9m in length, with a rounded upper end on the NNW, the interior narrows from 4.1m in breadth on the NNW to 2m on the SSE. The conical bowl, which is set into the ground in the centre of the barn; measures 1.3m in diameter and 0.5m in depth, it is faced with stone slabs set on edge, and around it there is a ledge to support the drying floor. A stone-lined flue, 2.6m long and 0.45m wide, leads into the bowl from the lower end of the building, where the firehole was presumably sited. No entrance was identified at that end of the building, but at the upper end there appear to be two opposed entrances. A similar kiln-barn was identified nearly 2km to the E, on the W side of Creag Thulach (NN02NE 24.01).

In addition to the buildings described above, there is a small hut on the SE side of the gully at NN 0458 2556 (LORN96 244). Overgrown with bracken on the date of visit, it measures 3.6m by 2.4m within a stony bank 0.65m in thickness, and there is an entrance on the NE.

(LORN96 236-40, 243-4)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 3 July 1996

RCAHMS surveyed the kiln-barn at Loch Tromlee with alidade and plane-table on 5 July 1996 at a scale of 1:100. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:200.