Glenbeg

NH62NW 34 6375 2571.

This township is situated on the SE edge of the flood-plain of Gleann Beag, a side valley of Strathnairn. Half of the fourteen buildings lie on the valley-bottom and the remainder on the side or top of the first terrace on the valley side; one of the latter is a kiln-barn and there is a second possible kiln set into the slope nearby.

The buildings on the valley-bottom have been much disturbed and robbed during the course of agriculture, but those on the terrace are better preserved. The majority of the buildings are rectangular on plan, but two are sub-rectangular with one side bowed (USN93 279-80), and all but two (USN93 274 and 277) are aligned on a NNE to SSW axis; they range in size from 8.8m to 26.6m in length by between 4.2m and 5.7m in breadth over faced-rubble walls between 0.7m and 1.15m in thickness and up to 0.8m in height, where best preserved. Five of the longer buildings (i.e. over 10m in overall length) are sub-divided into two compartments and four (USN93 276, 281 and 285-6) have bedneuks. The kiln-barn, which is situated on the S of the track that runs through the middle of the site, is built against the edge of the terrace; its kiln measures about 3.5m in diameter by 0.7m in depth within faced-rubble walls 1.8m thick, the barn extending 6.4m to the ESE by 4.6m in breadth (USN93 282). What may be a second kiln is marked by a semi-circular scoop into the edge of the same terrace on the N side of the track. All the buildings, except one (USN93 283), are shown as roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1875, sheet xliii). The Name Book describes the township as a 'cluster of dwelling houses offices etc. under the tenantry of three farmers, the houses are all one storey high thatched and only in middling repair' (ONB 1875).

(USN93 274-7)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 17 March 1993.