Cragganester 6

NN63NE 34 65461 38480

Farmstead at NN 6546 3848.

In March 1996 Glasgow University Archaeology Department undertook the first season of the Ben Lawers Survey Programme on the N shore of Loch Tay. The work was designed as a survey teaching programme for students from the Archaeology Department and included both standing building and topographic survey, as well as archaeological assessment.

Cragganester

NN 65 38 The surveys at Cragganester focused on the late 18th-century steadings of 'Lower Larches' (NN 654 384) and 'Upper Larches' (NN63NE 36). At Lower Larches two previously unknown carved stones, one of which had cup-mark decoration, were identified, which had been utilised in the steading's construction. A number of previously unidentified sites were also noted in the area [including]:

NN 654 385 'Peach Mound'. A small, embanked, circular turf structure, c 5m in diameter, with what appears to be an inner ditch on its W side and no visible entrance, perched on the W edge of a long moraine terrace.

Sponsors: Hunter Marshall Trust, Glasgow University Archaeology Department.

A Morrison and J A Atkinson 1996

The pilot season of the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project was undertaken in July 1996 on the N side of Loch Tay.

Cragganester

NN 65 38 Excavation of three trenches within the lands to the N of the current road revealed a variety of deposits. Trench 1 was located on a circular structure on the 'Peach Mound' (NN 654 385). An enclosing turf bank and inner ditch defined the S, E and N sides of the structure. No features within the structure or of artefactual materials were recovered. Trench 3 was located within the longhouse structure at 'Lower Larches' (NN 654 384). This confirmed that the W end of the structure had been the byre, furnished with a central drain, and that the site was occupied during the early 19th century. [For Trench 2 see NN63NE 111].

A full report will be lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsors: National Trust for Scotland, Historic Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Russell Trust.

A Morrison and J A Atkinson 1996

A farmstead, comprising one unroofed building is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1867, sheet lxix) and on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1981).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 23 February 1998.

A group of 'sunken structures', formerly included with this site and partly excavated in 1996, are now described under NN63NE 111. This farmstead was surveyed and described in 1989 by the Centre for Field Archaeology (RCAHMS MS 625/5 and DC14939). The report on Glasgow University's 1996 excavations suggests that the circular enclosure may be associated with the farmstead. The report also makes it clear that the byre drain is in the E end of the house, not the W end, as described above (RCAHMS MS 725/272, 20-31).

Information from RCAHMS (SDB) 26 October 2007.

NN 65461 38480 This farmstead, situated in enclosed pasture about 680m NW of Craggantoul House, comprises four buildings, a corn-drying kiln and two enclosures. The cupmarks identified by Glasgow University in 1996 could not be identified, nor could the circular structure excavated at that time (its site was identified at approximately NN 6544 3851).

Three of the buildings are grouped around a roughly rectangular yard, which is open to the SSE. The principal building (BL00 509) has been a byre-dwelling. It stands along the NNW side of the yard and measures 16.2m from ENE to WSW by 4.4m transversely within rubble walls up to 1.7m in height. There is an entrance on the SSE, the interior is divided into two compartments and there is an outshot at the WSW end. This building was partly excavated by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division in 1996, when a byre drain was identified in the E compartment. The buildings on the WSW and ENE sides of the yard are both reduced to their footings; that to the WSW (BL00 507) measures 22m by 5.1m overall, while that to the ENE measures 10.7m by 5.5m overall. A hollow in front of the WSW building may be a midden scoop. The fourth building, which has been reduced to little more than a platform, stands immediately N of the N corner of the byre-dwelling, and at right angles to it. It measures 19m by 5m overall, and it has a rounded NNW end.

Attached to the NNW side of the byre-dwelling, and within the angle formed by it and the fourth building, there is a small rectangular enclosure, which has larch trees growing from its enclosing bank. This lies within a much larger enclosure, measuring about 75m from NNW to SSE by 70m, at the N corner of which there is a small corn-drying kiln. The kiln (BL00 510) is set into the N side of a low knoll; it measures 1.8m in diameter and 0.7m in depth within a stony bank, and the flue opens towards the N.

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1867, sheet lxix) depicts one unroofed building here (BL00 509); the same building is again shown unroofed, with the small enclosure attached to its NNW side, on the 2nd edition of the map (Perthshire 1900, sheet lxix NW).

(BL00 507-10, 2695)

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 6 July 2000.