Lui Water

On Clais Phearnaig Burn fan, mainly on the eastern side of stream.

Large enclosure abutting longhouse 10m by 5m. Partitioned longhouse, 16m by 6m, also abutting enclosure. Two additional longhouses, 13m by 6m and 18m by 6m, also abutting. Longhouses, 12m by 5m and 14m by 5m, with adjacent massive wall foundation and stone clearance heaps. On the fan below the settlement, three corn kilns, each 3m in diameter, one set within the end of a rectangular structure. Upslope, above the track and within the tributary valley floor, three rectangular foundations, the longest with axis of 16m together with a sheal-like structure 8m by 3m. Further upstream on the right bank, a longhouse, 10m by 6m, with two possible stone founs associated. Below the track on the 'greens', rig and furrow, field dykes with evidence for stone clearance underlying dykes. Above and slightly towards the Derry, a solitary longhouse, 9m by 5m, with single entrance. Another longhouse of similar dimensions on trackside towards the Derry.

J S Smith 1987.

This township is located on the Allt a' Mhadaidh, as it emerges from its narrow gully onto the haughland of the Lui Water. The township consists of at least ten buildings, four kilns, five huts and other small structures, with associated enclosures, banks and areas of rig cultivation.

The buildings are concentrated in two main groups. The larger group is situated on the left bank of the burn, centred at NO 0579 9230, just below the modern track through Glen Lui. It comprises at least seven buildings and a small hut (MAR93 8-10, 12-16), disposed so as to form two subrectangular yards, separated by a building (MAR93 10). The buildings, with square-corners, measure 7.6m to 13m in length and 2.8m to 3.5m in breadth within faced-rubble walls, up to 1m in thickness. At least two of them have an internal subdivision, otherwise there are no internal features visible which might indicate the function of any particular building. There are traces of an earlier phase of construction here: the robbed remains of a rectangular structure measuring at least 7.2m in length are partly overlain by the SE end of one building (MAR93 10), and what may have been an earlier round-cornered building projects to the SW of MAR93 9.

The second group of buildings is situated some 80m to the N, centred at NO 0580 9239, above the modern track and again on the left bank of the burn. It comprises three buildings (MAR93 5-7) grouped around a courtyard. The central building measures 13.2m in length and 2.8m in breadth within heavily-robbed walls of faced-rubble 0.8m in thickness (MAR93 5); from each end of this a building projects to the SSW, that to the W measuring 5.7m in length and 2.3m in breadth, that to the E measuring at least 7.7m in length and 2.8m in breadth.

To the NNE of these buildings the banks of the burn become increasingly steep and narrow. Four more buildings and huts (MAR93 1-4) are to be found here on occasional pockets of level ground, the most northerly being about 200m to the NNE at NO 0588 9257 (MAR93 5-7). The largest of these is a round-cornered building measuring 8.7m in length by 2.5m in breadth within walls which survive to a height of 0.9m (MAR93 2).

The kilns appear to be of two kinds: two are corn-drying kilns (NO 0578 9224 and NO 0576 9235; MAR93 17, 20) and two appear to have been lime kilns (NO 0579 9220 and NO 0562 9226; MAR93 18, 21). The former are situated close to the main group of buildings, one to the S, the other across the burn to the NW. They are both set into sloping ground, with a bowl about 1.9m in diameter and a barn attached at the lower end. The other two kilns are larger - MAR93 21 has an oval bowl measuring 2.7m by 2.5m within a wall 1.4m in thickness and neither has an attached barn. They are located up to 150m from the settlement buildings, on the floodplain of the Lui Water, a choice of location which recurs at townships further up Glen Lui (see NO09SE 4 and NO09SE 5).

To the SE and SW of the settlement, below the modern track, is an area of cleared ground, amounting to about 5ha, which bears traces of rig cultivation, in places defined by stretches of bank or drain.

A map of the Forrest of Mar by John Farquharson, dated 1703 (National Library of Scotland), indicates three settlements in this area of Glen Lui, and Roy's map (Roy 1747-55) names this one 'Aldvattigally' which in gaelic is Allt a' Mhadaidh-allaidh (Watson and Allan 1984). The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1869, sheets lxxxviii and xcvii) depicts five buildings here (MAR93 2, 5, 6, 12 & 15), all roofless.

(MAR93 1-10, 12-21)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 17 May 1994

As noted above by RCAHMS (SDB) five unroofed buildings are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1869, sheet xcvii). Two of these buildings abut at right angles and appear as one unroofed L-shaped building.

Nine unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1972).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 23 March 1999