Dalreoich

NH57NE 23 5764 7685

This farmstead lies in rough ground 250m NW of Dalreoich Farm. It comprises at least four buildings, two enclosures and a number of banks to the N and W.

The main building is situated on a slight eminence towards the bottom of a SW-facing slope. It is an L-shaped structure with rough boulder footings up to 0.6m high and a bedneuk in its S wall. A central drain which runs out through the gable is visible at the W end, indicating a byre at that end of the building. There is a door midway along the S wall and a plinth about 2m wide along the S side of the building. There is an external drain along the N wall, which runs out around the W gable, and a second drain leads off from the E gable.

At right-angles to the main building and 7m NW of it, there is a two-compartment building, built across the slope; at the NNE end of this building there is a path, and beyond it a small building lying on the same axis.

The path leads towards a small polygonal enclosure attached to which are at least one, and probably two, buildings. End-on to the S side of the enclosure there is a well-preserved building with grass-covered stone footings up to 0.5m in height built across the slope. The W side of the enclosure has been robbed, but the rectilinear shape of the footings and a slight terrace suggest the presence of a second building.

A second small polygonal enclosure lies 5m S of the main building, with well-preserved boulder stone walls still standing up to 0.75m high.

To the W of the buildings, in boggy ground, there is a three-sided enclosure with grass-covered banks up to 0.8m in height.

Further enclosure banks run uphill into gorse-covered ground to the NE and appear to form part of a field-system whose uphill side is marked by a bank running along the contour. This bank is cut through by a trackway which may have run down to the farmstead but is obscured by the gorse. Beneath a heap of modern field clearance between the gorse and the improved ground to the E there is a small structure measuring about 2m square. A possible building some 7m in overall length lies to the S of it.

General Roy's map (1747-55,sheet 26/1) shows a settlement called Taybrandrach at this location.

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 16 November 1989.