Muck, Blar Na Fionn-aird

NM47NW 37 41326 79278

This farmstead, which comprises three subrectangular buildings, an enclosure and a midden, lies at the rear of a grassy terrace below a nose of outcrop. The terrace has been cultivated extensively with lazy-beds, but these are overridden by the widely-spaced furrows of improved plough rigs; the furrows of this later cultivation cut through the E side of the midden. The buildings are arranged in an L-shape on plan, with the enclosure off-set to the NW of the largest building. This building is round-ended and is set into the slope on its NNW side. It measures 8.4m by 4m within a faced rubble wall 1m in thickness and 0.9m in height. The entrance lies midway along its SSE side and is protected by a baffle wall. To either side of the entrance, there is a line of facing-stones about 0.5m outside the external face. On the WSW this line of face extends at least 2.9m beyond the end of the building, indicating that it belongs to an independent structure, probably an earlier building occupying the same spot. The enclosure, which lies upslope to the NNW, is a garden plot defined by a stony bank and containing at least three short lazy-beds. This also reveals two phases of use, the earlier of which extended further up the slope behind the farmstead.

The two remaining buildings lie to the ENE, the larger of which is set end-on into the slope and measures 8.3m by 3.6m within a boulder-faced wall 0.9m in thickness and 0.5m in height. Its entrance was probably in its ENE side, but has been obscured by stone-robbing for a later pen inserted in the NNW end. The third building abuts its SSE end and is also defined by a boulder-faced wall. The hollow of the midden lies immediately to the E.

(Muck02, 227-32)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG) 17 May 2002