Kyle Of Durness
Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Slipway (Period Unassigned), Storehouse (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Kyle Of Durness
Classification Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Slipway (Period Unassigned), Storehouse (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 296870
Site Number NC36NE 103
NGR NC 36273 69965
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/296870
- Council Highland
- Parish Durness
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
Field Visit (2008)
This storehouse and slipway were built in 1827 by the Northern Lighthouse Board to support the lighthouse (NC27SE 3.00) at Cape Wrath. The facility was one of a pair, the other being situated at Clais Charnach (NC27SE 4), some 10km to the west. Whilst the storehouse and the slipway at Clais Charnach are in an excellent state of preservation and still in use by the Ministry of Defence, this building is roofless and the slipway (NC 3629 6994) has been almost totally washed away.
The storehouse (NC 36273 69965) comprises a single storey rectangular three bay structure with a central doorway and flanking windows on its SE side. It is built of dressed granite blocks with pinning of the highest quality with tooled granite quoins, and the interior consists of a single room with a large dressed granite fireplace opposite the central door.
Situated immediately SW of the storehouse (c. NC 3626 6995) are several grass-grown subrectangular stances or platforms, which have been set into the SE-facing slope. Like a series of similar features at Clais Charnach, they probably represent the remains of temporary timber structures erected to house the men and store materials during the construction of the slipway and storehouse.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 12 August 2008.
