Tigh-cuil

345. Tigh-cuil Township.

The remains of this small township (Fig. 231, Pl. 102) are situated about 530 m W of Barrnacarry farmhouse, and are now included in that property. During the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the area formed part of the farm of Ardnahua, whose extent is shown in an estate-map of 1809 (Pl. l03A) (en.1). Until the last decade of the 18th century the only buildings on Ardnahua, a joint-farm of eight tenants comprising about 165 ha (407 acres), were situated in an irregular group 750 m SSE of Tigh-Cuil; in 1788 it was reported that the tenants had 'their houses all in one corner at a distance from some of their best land'. The factor's recommendation that the farm be divided into smaller lots was implemented two years later, when the SE portion was split into three farms, each leased by two tenants who were allocated part of the original township for their dwellings. The remainder of the property, an area of 77 ha (190 acres) of which 11.7 ha (29 acres) was arable, became North Ardnahua, and in 1796 It was ‘possessed by Archibald Clark and Alexander McCowan, both in the town upwards of twenty years, who have removed to this division six years ago when the town was divided, and have built a new toft at their own expences' (en.2).

Several of the existing structures are identifiable on the estate-map of 1809, and it is evident that these are the original buildings of the new settlement, erected in or shortly after 1790. Two buildings are shown as still roofed on the O.S. map of 1897, but the township was probably abandoned by that date, or shortly thereafter.

The settlement, which is situated at an altitude of about 70 m OD, on the SE side of a long ridge which slopes to the NE, comprises two byre-dwellings (A, B, on Fig. 231) and a number of smaller buildings and enclosures. The even nature of the terrain is interrupted by two low parallel rocky ridges on a SW-NE axis, forming a small hollow in which one of the byre-dwellings (B) is situated. Most of the buildings are preserved, at least partially, to their original height and are gable-ended, the masonry in all cases being of slate- and whinstone rubble, bonded for the most part with clay mortar. Three of the larger buildings (A, B, D), display wall-sockets which formerly held crucks, and through-stones project from their gables to fasten the ropes formerly used to hold the roofing-thatch in position. One of the byre-dwellings (A) is situated close to a dry-stone head-dyke which separates the area of settlement and arable from higher rough pasture to the SW .The building is of five cruck-bays, measuring 16.0 m from NW to SE by 6.1 m transversely over walls some 0.8 m in thickness. Access was by opposed doorways set centrally in the side-walls, and by additional doorways, one in each side-wall, which may be later insertions. The NW portion of the building, lit by two windows in the end-bay, was probably the dwelling, but the other part also has two windows of moderate size, in addition to a small window in the SE gable-wall. Against the NE wall there is built a later annexe which is itself of two periods, a single enclosure having subsequently been divided into three small compartments. The NE end of this annexe extends on to a stone-revetted raised platform rising about 1.2 m above an area of marsh that separates Building A from the remainder of the township.

Associated with this building, and situated 24 m to the S of it, is a rectangular outhouse (AI) having two doorways in the N wall and a small annexe against the E gable-wall. Although constructed of dry-stone masonry, this structure is of later date than the byre-dwelling; it may, however, replace a small building situated W of the latter, which is shown on the estate-map of 1809 but has now disappeared completely.

The second byre-dwelling (B) is of six cruck-bays and measures 18·6 m from SW to NE by 6'0 m transversely over walls 0'9 m in thickness. The two divisions of the building were entered by separate doorways in the SE wall, and in the original arrangement were probably of equal length, being divided by a partition on the line of the central cruck-couple. Subsequently a stone partition-wall incorporating a fireplace and cupboard was built, and this encroached on the original area of the byre. The SW gable-wall was rebuilt, probably in the second quarter of the 19th century, together with the adjacent portion of the SE wall in which there is a window of some size; the gable-wall contains a fireplace and a cupboard-alcove, above which there is a small horizontal recess, perhaps designed to hold the family bible. This portion of the dwelling evidently constituted the 'room', while the NW portion, with its large inserted fireplace and a door communicating with the byre, was the kitchen. This apartment was lit by small windows in the NW and SE walls; another window in the NW wall, in the central bay of the dwelling, probably served a bed-closet, which was provided with a small aumbry near the window. The byre was lit by a small opening near the NE end of the SE wall. At a later date the byre-dwelling was extended to the NE by the construction of a narrower annexe, communicating with the byre by a doorway formed in the NE gable-wall of the original building, and also having an entrance-doorway in the SE wall. This annexe was of dry-stone masonry, but apart from the NE wall, which is preserved as the SW gable-wall of a second annexe, comprising two bays divided by a single cruck-couple, it is now reduced to foundation-level.

Immediately to the SE of the byre-dwelling there is a small rectangular structure (B1) whose SE wall is formed by a natural rock-face. This building, which is windowless, has a small fireplace in its SW gable-wall and may have been a workshop or smithy. To the NE of Building B there is a rectangular enclosure (C), and outside the SW wall of this there are the scanty remains of a small shed formed by two dry-stone walls set at right angles to a natural rock-face. The enclosure was evidently a kail-yard created after 1809, when it appears on the estate map as part of a larger area of unenclosed arable-ground.

To the E of Enclosure C there is a building (D), probably a barn, which stands within a small walled enclosure, built up artificially on the NW to a height of 1'2 m above an area of marsh. The building, which is represented, with the enclosure, on the estate-map of 1809, was of four cruck-bays, although the slots of the central cruck-couple have been obscured. It was entered by a doorway in the NW wall, the only other opening being a small triangular window in the NE gable-wall.

Even after the division of Ardnahua in 1790, the tenants of each portion continued to cultivate their land in run-rig, and the arable fields of North Ardnahua were never enclosed. They lie scattered in small parcels over a wide area, where traces of rig-cultivation are still visible, but one of the main areas of cultivation was on sloping ground immediately SE of Tigh-cuil, between the settlement and a small unnamed burn which formed the boundary with Mid Ardnahua. A roadway, embanked on the E, runs S from Building A1, along the W edge of the area of arable, as far as the burn, and is represented in the same position on the estate-map of 1809. The farm is bounded on the NW by 1.3 km of rocky coastline; the only suitable boat-landing, however, is on the SW shore of Barrnacarry Bay, and when Ardnahua was divided in 1790, this area was separated as a croft.

RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1971

1. S.R.O., RHP 720, Plan of Nether Lorn estate by Alexander Langlands.

2. S.R.O., Breadalbane Collection, GD 112/9/3, Nether Lorn Rental, Crop 1788, p. 13; S.RO., RHP 972/5, 'Report on Nether Lorn by R Robertson, 1796'.

A site plan of Tigh-Cuil township was prepared by RCAHMS in 1971. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1975, fig. 231).