Rose Cottage, Hillhead

ND34SW 338 34075 43591

This farmstead is situated immediately W of the Thrumster to Mains of Ulbster public road and comprises a range measuring 33m from E to W by 5m transversely over all. The E end contains a roofed dwelling, although all the slates have been stripped away, leaving the felt below exposed. The central doorway on the S (obscured by a later brick-built porch) has flanking windows to either side, and there are single windows in the N side and in the E gable. Access to the interior of the cottage could not be gained on the date of visit, but the chimneys in both gables indicate fireplaces in both ends.

The remaining part of the range contains four roofless compartments, each with an entrance in its S side. The compartment adjacent to the dwelling was another dwelling, with a window in its S side and a fireplace in its E mid-gable. This compartment is linked to its neighbour on the W by a doorway at the S end of another shared mid-gable partition wall. This too has a fireplace lying at its E end, with an ambry on its N side, and there is a pair of cruck-slots at the midpoint. A doorway at the S end of the shared partition, which once linked this compartment on the W is now blocked, but it led through into a compartment with a small, blocked, window in its N side. This also displays a pair of cruck-slots. The final compartment, at the W end of the range, contains an ambry in the inner face of its N wall. A small outshot is attached to the W end of the S side of this compartment, and immediately S of the cottage is a small garden, bounded by a drystone wall.

The range is depicted roofed on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1876, sheet xxx;1907, sheet xxx).

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Visited by RCAHMS (ATW), 12 August 2004.