Oliclate

ND34NW 69 ND 30231 46182

This farmstead is situated high up on the SE flank of the Hill of Oliclett overlooking its improved fields directly to the SE. L-shaped on plan, it comprises two long ranges, set at right angles to one another on the NE and SE sides of a yard, which is otherwise defined by a broad grass-grown bank. The SE range (YARROWS04 178) measures 36.5m from NE to SW by 4.6m transversely within clay-bonded walls 0.6m in thickness and up to 2.2m in height. It has been heavily modified, but seems to have originally contained a cottage at the SW end and two other compartments.

The cottage has a central doorway and flanking windows in its SE side and in the interior there is a fireplace in each gable. In addition to the two principal rooms, a third, smaller room between is indicated by a small window in the NW wall opposite the entrance. The SW room of the cottage was additionally lit by a window to the SE of the fireplace in the SW gable, and this feature was balanced on the other side by a tall cupboard recess.

A doorway at the NW end of the NE gable of the cottage provides access to an adjacent compartment, which has a central doorway, flanked on the SW by three ambries, in its SE side. A window in the wall opposite helped to light this space, while a doorway close to the centre of the partition wall on the NE provides access to the third compartment. This third compartment, at the NE end of the range, was originally entered through two doorways in its SE side. One, at the SW end of the SE side is still accessible, but the central doorway, which lay directly opposite a low creep in the NW wall, has been partly blocked and converted into a window.

The range was originally provided with a ridged roof, but the SE wall of the third compartment has been raised 0.3m to allow the installation of a lectern-type timber-framed and corrugated iron sheet-clad roof that slopes down from SE to NW, but has partly collapsed. The NE gable has been heavily remodelled by the insertion of a wide entrance.

The NE range (YARROWS04 179) measures 27.8m from NW to SE by 4.2m transversely within clay-bonded, roughly coursed rubble walls 0.7m in thickness and standing up to 1.8m in height. The interior contains three compartments, but also a later sheep-dip that runs the full length of the building along the SW side. The compartment at the SE end has a central entrance in its NE side and contains a recent concrete floor that slopes down towards the tank of the sheep-dip, which breaches the NW wall. The central compartment has opposing central doorways in the NE and SW walls, but the former is blocked, and there are two ambries above a low creep in the partition wall on the NW, which is also breached by the sheep-dip. The NW compartment has a central doorway in its NE side.

A grass-grown mound (YARROWS04 180), measuring 12m in diameter and 0.8m in height, is situated 3m W of the cottage. It is probably made-up of the turves that were taken off the roof when its timber frame was taken down.

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map depicts the farmstead roofed, except for the NW compartment of the NE range (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix); the 2nd edition of the map shows the whole of this building unroofed (1907, sheet xxix).

(YARROWS04 178-180)

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 27 July 2004