Achnanclach
Bothy (20th Century) (1982), Farmstead (Post Medieval), Field System(S) (Post Medieval), Sheepfold (19th Century), Shepherds Cottage (19th Century)
Site Name Achnanclach
Classification Bothy (20th Century) (1982), Farmstead (Post Medieval), Field System(S) (Post Medieval), Sheepfold (19th Century), Shepherds Cottage (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Achnaclach; Ach Nan Clach
Canmore ID 86885
Site Number NC65SW 8
NGR NC 63073 51112
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/86885
- Council Highland
- Parish Farr
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
Note (18 August 1995)
A farmstead comprising an unroofed long building, a sheepfold of three compartments and three fields, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet xxvi). Two roofed buildings and two large walled fields are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10,560 map (1961).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 18 August 1995.
Note (27 June 2022)
NC65SW 8 NC 63072 51111
Two buildings and an enclosure are situated at the foot of Beinn Stumanadh and along the track between Loch Loyal and Loch Craggie, 1.7km to the W. It comprises (i) a roofed building, now in use as a bothy, which once extended further to the ENE, (ii) a roofless building 40m to the ESE and (iii) a square enclosure (at NC 63093 51082). The buildings sit within a series of turf and stone walled enclosures covering an area of about 6 hectares which exhibit evidence for at least three phases. Vertical aerial photographs reveal evidence for rig and furrow cultivation in the W enclosure, there are areas of peat cutting about 250m to the NE and another farmstead has been recorded about 900m to the ENE (NC65SW 13). A much earlier phase of occupation in the area is indicated by a prehistoric burial cairn about 1km W of the bothy (NC65SW 1).
A settlement labelled ‘Polruskanach’ is depicted at approximately this location on Burnett and Scott’s Map of Sutherland (1833; NLS, Dep.313/3602). A roofless building of three compartments, annotated sheepfold, three large enclosures and what may be another roofless building to the W (at NC 6288 5104) are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland, sheet xxvi, 1878). The contemporary OS Name Book describes Achnanclach as ‘the ruins of a small farm’ (Sutherland Book No. 12, p. 68). A roofed building annotated ‘Bothy’ is depicted on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 digital map.
The main building was evidently reoccupied by 1881 when the census records the occupants as the shepherd James Allison (aged 60), his sister and housekeeper Jane (70), Catherine Sutherland (32), Margaret Sutherland (30), both of whom are listed as servants, and Donald Mackay (27), a visitor.
Information from HES Archaeological Survey (D M Bratt), 27 June 2022.
(Allan 2017, 42-3)
