Finfal

NC82NW 23 819 298.

The township of Finfal is situated on the NE slopes of Cnoc Feith na Fola, some 500m W of the Finfal Burn; the buildings are divided into two groups and lie on the W and SW sides (NC 818 298 and NC 818 297) of a stone-walled field, which itself overlies an earlier field. The field displays traces of rig some 6m to 7m in width. The buildings of the SW group are much reduced in comparison to those on the W, which stand to considerable height, and may indicate that it represents a primary phase. Finfal was occupied by two tenants in 1808, but was combined with Dallagan in 1815.

The two buildings to the W of the field lie roughly parallel to one another some 10m apart and are built of rough-coursed rubble, 0.9m to 1.1m in thickness and up to 1.8m in height. That to the W (KILD91 92) measures 19.6m from NE to SW by 3m transversely with an entrance in the SE side; it appears to have been shortened by 2.7m at the NE end. That to the E (KILD91 91) measures 7.5m from NNE to SSW by 3.4m transversely with an entrance in the NW side. Of the group to the SW of the field, one of the buildings lies a short distance inside the field and the other about 60m to the SW, but within a subsidiary field. That inside the field (KILD91 90) measures 9.5m from NE to SW by 2.8m within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness by 0.4m in height and is built up at the NE end. The other building (KILD91 88) is smaller at 5.8m from ENE to WSW by 3.4m transversely within rubble-faced walls 1m in thickness and up to 0.6m in height with an entrance in the NW side. The kiln-barn (KILD91 89), which is attached to the field wall, measures 5.3m by 2.4m within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness and up to 0.7m in height with the kiln set into the slope at the S end with a bowl 1.2m in diameter and 0.7m in depth and a flue offset to the W.

(KILD91 88-92)

R J Adam 1972

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 1991