Markwell, Marquel

ND34SW 449 ND 32313 41252

This farmstead comprises an abandoned thatched cottage and a roofless range (YARROWS04 280). The range, which stands immediately N of the cottage, measures 19.6m from ESE to WNW by 4.8m transversely over clay-bonded and lime-pointed walls 0.7m in thickness and up to 3m in height. It contains five compartments, each with an entrance to the SSW. The roofless compartment at the ESE end is a dwelling, with its entrance on the SSW and a window on the NNE; the interior contains a fireplace at the ENE end, and there are also ambries in the NNE and SSW sides respectively. The next pair of compartments remain in use as stores, while the fourth, narrow, compartment is roofless. The compartment at the WNW end is also unroofed, and its broad opening indicates that it may have served as a cart-shed.

A trough, measuring at least 1.7m from ESE to WNW by 0.5m transversely and 0.35m in depth, is sunk into the ground immediately N of the range and is covered by three flagstones. It is connected to a stone-lined, open drain carrying water from a spring to the E. Both the cottage and the range are depicted roofed on 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix; 1907, sheet xxix).

Also depicted on those two maps is a well (YARROWS04 284), which is situated in a shallow hollow 30m NE of the farmstead. It is covered by two flagstones, which together measure 3m from NE to SW by 1.75m transversely.

A disused limestone quarry (YARROWS04 283), which is not depicted on either map, is cut into a SE-facing slope about 50m NE of the farmstead and some 40m W of the A99(T) public road. Roughly oval on plan, it measures 10.5m from NNW to SSE by 6m transversely and 2m in depth on the W, where there is an exposure of living rock.

(YARROWS04 280, 282-4)

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 26 August 2004.