Shenval

NH62NE 17 6534 2900

Shenval [NAT] (at NH 6537 2902)

Kiln (dis) [NAT] (at NH 6535 2896)

OS 1:10,000 map, 1976.

The remains of this township are located on a generally S-facing hillside about 900m WSW of Brin Rock. The ruins of at least seven buildings and a kiln are visible, along with a number of enclosures and ruined field walls.

The settlement is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, 1874, sheet xxxi), which shows five buildings, three of them roofed and two roofless. The Name Book describes 'a small farmhouse with suitable offices attached, the whole thatched and in bad repair' (ONB 1871). By the time of the 2nd edition map (Inverness-shire 1905, sheet xxxi) only one building retained its roof.

The roofed buildings on the 1st edition can be identified with the three most substantial structures now visible (USN93 401-403; USN93 402 is the only one still roofed on the 2nd edition) which range from 12.4m to 17m in length by 3.5m to 3.9m in breadth within walls (mortared in two cases) 0.7m to 0.9m in thickness. Cruck-slots, and even one cruck, survive in one of these buildings (USN93 402) which also has a fireplace, windows and a bedneuk. Another building (USN93 401) has a central drain running out through one end, pointing to its use as a byre. The two buildings depicted as unroofed on the 1st edition can also be identified with remains on the ground, but these are smaller structures, measuring 9.2m in length by 2.6m in breadth, and 8.8m in length by 3m in breadth, both within faced rubble walls measuring up to 0.8m in thickness (USN93 348, 400). One of these two may have had a central drain, and therefore have served as a byre.

The kiln (USN93 404) is well-preserved, measuring 3m in diameter within a faced rubble wall standing up to 1.3m in height, with the robbed remains of a barn attached on the N side. Two, or possibly three, other buildings survive (USN93 347, 349, 466), all of them have been extensively robbed and reduced to stony banks.

(USN93 347-9, 400-4, 466)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 19 March 1993.

Scheduled in part as 'Shenval, settlement... the upstanding remains and footings of a large farmstead or small township, between 300 and 100 years old, sitting on a shoulder of ground on the upper S facing slopes of a wide valley. The ruins of at least seven buildings and a kiln are visible, along with a number of enclosures and field walls.'

[The scheduled area does not include the greater part of the field-system, as defined by RCAHMS].

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 29 August 2006.