Inbhir Dhorrcail

NG80NE 1.02 851 054.

1: This building (NG 8519 0547), which stands on the line of the head-dyke (though it is unclear whether it pre- or post-dates the head-dyke), occupies a bracken-covered hollow on the left bank of the Allt Coire Dhorrcail. It has been terraced into the slope and there is a drainage-trench to the rear. The building is round angled, rectangular on plan, and measures 8.8m from NW to SE by 4.7m transversely over walls 0.9m in thickness and 0.9m in average height. The entrance, now partially blocked, is towards the NW end of the NE wall. The NE jamb of the entrance is unusually thick (1.9m) and externally has the form of a buttress, or plinth. Due to the fragmentary nature of the walls to the interior of the building, it is difficult to determine whether crucks were used or not. At the NW end of the building there is an outshot (3.1m by 2.8m over walls up to 0.6m thick and 0.5m high) with an entrance in the NE wall. On the NE side of the building a small yard area is defined by fragmentary turf-covered boulder-footings (5.6m by 7.8m overall). Some 25m to the NNE (NG 8520 0550), beside the stream, there is a small hearth edged with stone (0.8m diameter).

2: Some 13m to the NNW of building (1), on marginally higher ground, there are the wasted remains of what may be a building (NG 8518 0550). It measures 8m from NNE to SSW by 4.9m transversely over a low turf-covered stony bank up to 0.8m in thickness. To the ESE, between the building and the burn, the slope is slightly dished and this is conceivably the product of cultivation; there are traces too, to the NW, of terracing over which later cultivaiton ridging has been carried.

3: About 18m to the S of building (1) there are the turf-covered remains of a trapezoidal-shaped enclosure (NG 8519 0545), measuring 9.5m by 6.5m overall. Some 15m to the W there is a small circular pen (NG 8517 0545), and, about 20m from this, a stance (NG 8517 0543), measuring 2m in diameter.

Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 7 June 1991.

RCAHMS 1991.