Bynack Burn

NO08NW 19.07 0042 8673

A boundary dyke, a sheepfold, a bothy and what may be a sheep dip are situated in the bottom of the U-shaped valley through which the Bynack Burn runs.

The boundary dyke encloses the valley bottom on either side of the Bynack Burn, extending from the confluence with the Geldie Burn in the N nearly as far as Bynack Lodge in the S, an area of about 1.1km by between 150m and 250m in breadth (22ha). The dyke varies from a stone dyke to a ditch cut in the peat, through which part of it runs on the W side of the Burn. It is incomplete, particularly on the E side. It post-dates the huts at the S end (NO08NW 19.01) and an extension of it at the N end runs W towards the remains of a sheepfold and its related structures, which are situated on the edge of the terrace on the S of the Geldie Burn.

The sheepfold (MAR93 552) includes a grass-covered area on the W which was enclosed by a timber fence, the post-holes for which could still be located. On the E there are the partially robbed remains of a bothy, two rectilinear cobbled stances to the W and S of it, and a possible sheep dip. The sheep-dip comprises a stone-ramp at the S end of two parallel rows of flat stones, 16.4m long and 1.9m apart, at the N end of which is a pit (2.9m long by 0.9m across and 0.25m deep). Alongside this on the E there are six parallel turf-covered plinths, each one 1.4m in length by 0.75m in breadth and 0.25m in height, the function of which could not be determined. Another pair of them is situated at NO 0043 8673 adjacent to the dyke that leads up to the sheepfold from the E. The bothy (MAR93 551), which is situated on the edge of the river terrace, measures 10.5m from NNE to SSW by 5.8m transversely over faced-rubble walls 0.6m in thickness and standing to as much as 0.6m in height on the NNE, but robbed to its foundations elsewhere.

The 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map depicts the sheepfold and a roofed structure (Aberdeenshire 1903, Sheet xcvi).

(MAR93 551-2)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 20 July 1993.