Auchnasheenish
Head Dyke (Medieval) - (18th Century), Kiln Barn (Medieval) - (18th Century), Township (Medieval) - (18th Century)
Site Name Auchnasheenish
Classification Head Dyke (Medieval) - (18th Century), Kiln Barn (Medieval) - (18th Century), Township (Medieval) - (18th Century)
Canmore ID 6684
Site Number NC82NW 13
NGR NC 807 288
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6684
- Council Highland
- Parish Kildonan
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
Field Visit (2 February 1977)
NC82NW 13 807 288.
(NC 806289) Auchnasheenish (NAT)
OS 6"map, (1962)
Auchnasheenish, a small depopulated township comprising of five buildings, a corn drying kiln lying outside the township wall on the SE side, and a short distance further east another possible kiln. Within the township wall there is clear evidence of contemporary cultivation marked by bare stone clearance heaps and narrow rig ploughing.
Visited by OS (JB) 2 February 1977
Field Visit (11 March 1991)
This township lies on the gentle SSW-facing slopes of the Achin to the NE of an unnamed tributary of the Allt nan Achaidhean; it comprises five buildings, four on the NE fringe of two embanked fields, associated with several small enclosures, and one to the W (KILD91 72), a kiln-barn to the E of the fields and what may be a second kiln, a short distance to its E. Rig is visible within the fields and without them in the vicinity of the shielings to the E (NC82NW 11). There are a number of clearance heaps within the fields, which by their shape, lack of vegetation and location in the furrows are coeval with that phase of cultivation. Three of the buildings are closely grouped. Built across the contour, two are long-buildings, 23.7m and 26.1m in length respectively by some 3.5m in breadth within rubble-faced walls 0.8m to 1m in thickness and up to 1m in height with entrances in the side walls, whilst the third, which lies between the other two, is somewhat shorter. One of the long-buildings (KILD91 75) has a recess in its ESE side, measuring 1.8m in length by 1.4m in breadth, possibly a bedneuk. The kiln-barn is set into the slope and measures 5.5m from NNE to SSW by 1.8m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness and up to 0.8m in height with its kiln at the N end, the bowl of which is 1.4m in diameter and 0.8m in depth. A circular pit, possibly some sort of kiln, the bowl of which measures 2m in diameter by 0.5m in depth, is dug into the slope some 30m to the E. The township cannot be identified in estate documents (Nat. Lib. Scot. Dep. 313, Sutherland MSS), and may have been included in another farm such as Free (see NC82NW 27).
(KILD91 72-77, 86-7)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 11 March 1991.
