Tombreck

NN63NW 6 64932 38099.

A "round fort" (? homestead - c/f NN44SE 7) is shown in an atlas of 1769 (Breadalbane Estate plan, HM General Register Office, Edinburgh) on the farm of Tombreck (NN 651 377) about 1/4 mile above the public road, and in a field to the E of the burn that flows from the Corrie of Carie (NN 6438). This field had, until recent times, been known to the tenants of the farm as "An Caisteal". All the stones have been removed. (Nothing visible on APs: RAF 1950).

W A Gillies 1938

The name An Caisteal is not known.

Visited by OS (RD) 9 September 1969

No change to previous field report.

Visited by OS (JM) 10 September 1975

NN 639 382. Tombreck, An Caisteal. Circular homestead. External diameter 35m, inner wall face grass grown. On low mound in hummocky ground on E bank of Allt an Tuim Bhric beside track. Typical dished appearance.

D B Taylor 1990

The summit of a low rise, about 500m NNW of Tombreck farmsteading and on the E side of a modern vehicle track, has been levelled to form a subrectangular platform measuring 22.5m from NE to SW by 18m transversely. On the S and E the platform has a curved edge, which may have been built up artificially. It is possible that this is the site of a homestead.

The field in which the platform lies is named 'The Castle' in the Book of References accompanying John Farquharson's 1769 Survey of the North Side of Loch Tay (National Archives of Scotland, RHP 973/2 and RHP 973/1, Plan 9). This site is probably that identified by Taylor (1990), though the location he gives is incorrect.

(BL00 1692)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 1 November 2000

The third excavation season of the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project was undertaken in September 2004. The project continued the investigation of sites previously trial trenched in April 2004 at Tombreck.

NN 6499 7382 Trench 15 was extended to open up an area of 15 x 10m over the top of a small knoll to the W of, and above trench 13 at Tombreck (NN63NW 99). Although scant physical traces of a site had been apparent, map evidence (Farquharson's survey of 1769) named the area as the site of a 'castle'. The initial trial trench revealed two pits containing carbonised material.

Fuller excavation in September 2004 revealed 17 structural pits and post-holes surrounding a large stone flag and cobbled area in the SW of the trench. No datable finds were recovered, however an assemblage of worked stone was revealed, including at least two fragments of quernstones. A number of the post-holes contained post-pipes and packing and had clearly been burnt in situ. Traces of three roundhouses were represented, but no hearths located. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the site has provided a date of use in the Iron Age.

J A Atkinson 2004

The NGR given in the previous report is incorrect. Further details on the trial trenching in April 2004 and of the further excavations in September 2004 are contained in two reports published by GUARD (respectively RCAHMS MS 2057 and MS 2367).

Information from RCAHMS (SDB) 1 March 2007