Helmsdale
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Midden (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Cup, Lamp, Quern(S)
Site Name Helmsdale
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Midden (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Cup, Lamp, Quern(S)
Alternative Name(s) Cnoc Chaisteal
Canmore ID 7439
Site Number ND01NW 24
NGR ND 0310 1525
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/7439
- Council Highland
- Parish Kildonan
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
ND01NW 24 0310 1525
(ND 0310 1525) Stone Cup, Lamp, Querns etc found (NAT)
OS 25" map, (1971).
See also ND01NW 37.
A villa named Cnoc Chaisteal is built on the site of a broch. In digging the foundations there were recovered a steatite cup, a stone lamp, a saddle quern, portions of one or more rotary querns and a stone whorl. All of these objects were preserved at the house. A quantity of shells of edible molluscs, exposed in a small piece of garden adjoining, probably indicated the site of a kitchen midden.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.
There is no trace of a broch at Cnoc Chaisteal, built about 1880, and the present whereabouts of the finds is unknown.
Visited by OS (N K B), 2 December 1976.
Publication Account (2007)
ND01 3 CNOC CHAISTEAL ('Helmsdale')
ND/0310 1525
Site of possible broch in Kildonan, Sutherland, named after a house which was built on top of it at about 1880. When the foundations were excavated there were found a handled steatite cup, a stone lamp, a saddle quern of granite, fragments of rotary querns and a thick stone whorl. Part of a shell midden was seen in the garden [2]. In 1976 no trace of the site could be found and the whereabouts of the finds is unknown [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 01 NW 24: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 134, no. 386: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 777.
E W MacKie 2007
