Cnoc Na Cainach

ND34SW 370 ND 30803 40061

The ruins of this farmstead, which are situated on the N side of a natural, reed-filled hollow on the SE flank of Cnoc na Cainach, comprise a range measuring 17.7m from NE to SW by 5.1m transversely over clay-bonded and lime-pointed walls 0.6m in thickness and up to 1.85m in height. The range, which has been set back into the slope on its NW side, contains four compartments, each with an entrance to the SE. The SW end of the range contains a dwelling with a central fireplace in its SW end and a central ambry in its NE end. The NW wall contains two cruck-slots, but the SE wall contains only one, the other having been lost due to the reconstruction of the wall next to the entrance in the E corner. The walls of this compartment were coped with upright slabs when it was converted into sheepfold.

The adjacent, rubble-filled, compartment to the NE is slightly narrower than the dwelling, and the third and fourth compartments are narrower still, but all share the same wall-line at the front. The second compartment has its entrance at the SW end of the SE wall, but the only access to the third compartment, also rubble-filled, was by way of a doorway at the SE end of the partition wall between it and the fourth compartment. The entrance to the latter, the smallest in the range, is at the SE end of its NE gable.

On the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxiv) all the range is depicted roofed except for its NE compartment; the 2nd edition of the map also shows the range roofed, but it omits the NE compartment (1907, sheet xxiv).

(YARROWS04 104)

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 28 April 2004