Caochan Rhuadh

NH63SE 81 6684 3260.

This farmstead consists of the remains of two buildings and a kiln set between two small knolls above the W bank of the Caochan Rhuadh. One building has been largely destroyed, but the other (USN93 189) measures 12.2m from NNE to SSW by 3.3m transversely within faced-rubble walls 0.9m thick and up to 1.3m high. The building is L-shaped, with a wing projecting 7m to the WNW at the N end, and there is an outshot 4.9m in length attached to the S end. The building is set into the base of a knoll on the E, and cruck slots are visible in the ESE side wall. The kiln (USN93 188) is set into the S end of the same knoll. Its circular bowl measures 2.9m in diameter and 1m in depth within a wall 0.85m thick. It is overgrown with gorse, but the flue appears to have been on the WNW side, and there is a possible barn on this side which abuts the S end of the building described above.

A settlement named 'Knockbuie' is shown at this position on a plan of Drumboy, part of the lands of Inverness Castle, dating to c.1760 (SRO: RHP 1841). 'Knockbui' appears on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1874, sheet xxxi) where three structures are depicted: two roofed buildings (USN93 189 and the largely-destroyed building to the SW) and one unroofed structure which has now gone. A wing shown projecting to the ESE at the S end of USN93 189 may be the possible kiln barn noted above. At the same date, the farm was described as being one storey in height, thatched and 'in indifferent repair' (ONB 1871). On the 2nd edition of the map (1905) all buildings are depicted unroofed and the site in no longer named.

(USN93 188-9)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 3 November 1992.