Inbhir Dhorrcail

NG80NE 1.01 8523 0559.

This farmstead, which comprises three buildings and a kiln, is situated to the rear of the foreshore, in a sheltered hollow, on relatively level ground beside the Allt Coire Dhorrcail. The buildings are set roughly parallel and lie end-on to the stream. The largest building, which is probably a dwelling, is square angled, rectangular on plan, and built of random rubble incorporating a large number of beach boulders (17.2m from NW to SE by 5.1m transversely over walls 0.6m thick and up to 1.1m high). The NE wall is slightly battered and both long-walls have been buttressed. The interior seems to have been divided into five cruck-bays and two principal compartments (entered independently from the NE long-wall); that on the NW was probably latterly used as a byre. Of the surviving cruck-slots, the finest example is that set 1.2m from the SSE angle in the NE long-wall. It springs from a height of 0.5m above ground level and is up to 0.15m wide and 0.15m deep. On the ENE side of the building there is a midden hollow, and on the N, emitting to the burn, a stone-edged drain.

The neighbouring building, 4.1m to the NE, is round angled, rectangular on plan, and measures 5.5m from NW to SE by 3.2m transversely over rubble walls 0.7m in thickness and up to 0.8m in height in six courses. The NE and SE walls, however, are reduced to their turf-covered stone wall-footings; the entrance has been in the SE wall. In the interior, there are three cruck-slots in the SW wall and one for an end-cruck in the NW wall. Each slot springs from a height of 0.5m above ground level and is about 0.15m wide, 0.15m deep and 0.4m high. A portion of the interior, beside the NW wall, has been cut by a trench.

Some 3m to the NE of the above building there are traces of a further structure, possibly also a building. It has been reduced to a few turf-covered boulder-footings and measures 2.9m from NW to SE by 2.2m transversely overall.

Some 12m to the E of the farmstead, on the nose of the terrace overlooking the mouth of the stream gully, there are the remains of a grain-drying kiln (NG 8526 0559). It has been almost entirely robbed leaving a depression up to 3.2m in diameter and 0.8m deep; the flue has been on the N.

The entire area of the outwash fan surrounding the farmstead has been cultivated, whilst close to the kiln there are at least three clearance cairns and traces of terracing (see also 1.2(2)). The cultivated area is bounded by an earthen head-dyke and on average the respective ridges measure 2m in width. Close to the farmstead, sections of the stream bank have been revetted with masonry.

Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 7 June 1991.

RCAHMS 1991.