Loch Watenan

ND34SW 457 NJ 32014 41023

A farmstead comprising two rectangular buildings and an adjoining garden lies in a patch of dense undergrowth in improved pasture at the SE end of Loch Watenan. Both buildings, which are now roofless, contain two compartments and have been terraced into the slope on the ESE. The longer (YARROWS04 88) measures 11.8m from ESE to WNW by 3.3m transversely within coursed rubble walls 0.65m in thickness and up to 1.9m in height at the wall-head. Its gables are still standing, although only the ESE chimney stack is intact. The entrance is close to the centre of the SSW side, and flanked by two windows, each lighting one of the compartments in the interior. The floor-level steps down about 0.5m from the ESE compartment on the line of what was probably a timber partition.

The second building (YARROWS04 89) lies immediately to the NNE and is set into the slope to a depth of 1.5m. It measures 5.8m from NNE to SSW by 3.5m transversely within coursed rubble walls 0.65m in thickness and still standing to their full height. It has an entrance and one window in the ESE side, and a fireplace in the NNE end. The interior is subdivided, and the doorway into the smaller compartment at the SSW end is at the ESE end of the partition wall.

The longer building is shown roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix) and is depicted with the garden enclosure in an area of improved ground. Both buildings are shown roofed on the 2nd edition of the map (1907, sheet xxix).

(YARROWS04 88-9)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, ATW) 17 June 2004.