Back Settlement

Old maps (Ordnance Survey) and photographs (M.E.M. Donaldson)

Visual inspection of site: photographs: measured.

This house is shown as roofed on the first (1875) and second (1897) editions of the OS 6-inch maps OS 6-inch maps (Argyllshire and Buteshire sheet xliii). A photograph taken by M.E.M. Donaldson about the end of the First World War shows that the roof had fallen in but some thatch could still be seen attached to the gables. By 1968 the walls had been considerably reduced but at that time the adjacent farmhouse and steading had been bought by some geologists, who built up the walls again a few years later, added half a roof and installed a chemical toilet. Looking at the ground around the building it is obvious that there was once a larger building here. To the south-west of the present building is a cross wall and the walls are rather thick. There is a 60cm terrace in front of the built up wall and in one corner there appears to be two external walls, one outside the other. This suggests that what was here originally was a creel house - a house with a wattle and turf wall. This would originally have contained a dwelling part and a byre area but this had probably deteriorated long before Miss Donaldson's photograph and had been replaced by the stone walled building she shows. About a metre to the north-east are the remains of another building (NM9758/5682) which was roofed on the first Ordnance Survey map. Two walls now appear to be part of a dyke and there is a faint line of a third wall. This was probably an open-fronted implement shed.