Barachander

NN02NW 18.01 0347 2527

This township comprises the footings of at least nine rectangular buildings that are situated in the lee of a low ridge to the SSW of the renovated cottage at Barachander. With one exception, the buildings are aligned from E to W and are large (LORN96 89-90, 92-7), measuring between 8m by 4.2m and 18.5m by 4.1m within faced-rubble footings, some of which have been extensively robbed. Two of these buildings (LORN96 89, 97) have two compartments while robbing trenches in a third (LORN96 94) suggest that it too may have had partitions. Two further buildings (LORN96 94, 96) have been extended by two and three compartments respectively. A building on the W edge of the township overlies an earlier building, while a further building to the S (LORN96 89) may cut the line of a field-bank (see NN02NW 18.03). The single small building (LORN96 91) measures 5.2m from NNE to SSW by 4.3m internally. Four enclosures lie within the township, three of which are butted onto buildings (LORN96 90-1, 93, 96-7).

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet c) depicts three roofed buildings, two of which correspond to structures recorded on the date of visit (LORN96 91, 96). The third building on the 1st edition appears to have been a small structure occupying the site of a larger, earlier building (LORN96 92). Two of the enclosures are also shown, the southernmost as a garden. The three buildings are all roofless by the date of the 2nd edition map (Argyllshire 1897, sheet c SE). A 1748 survey (RHP 962) of adjacent ground to the S labels this locality as 'Barchenvore', but does not depict the township.

(LORN96 89-97)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 21 June 1996