Ledbeg River
Building(S) (Period Unassigned), Enclosure (Period Unassigned), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name Ledbeg River
Classification Building(S) (Period Unassigned), Enclosure (Period Unassigned), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 89580
Site Number NC21SE 28
NGR NC 25816 14176
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/89580
- Council Highland
- Parish Assynt
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC21SE 28 258 141
NC 258 141: Shielings.
J Home 1774-5.
NC 2590 1420: On E bank of the Ledbeg River are two building footings, 10.0m by 4.0m and 4.0m by 3.0m, and remains of small adjacent enclosure; to NW a complex of ruinous walls and banks extend over hillside and flood-plain, at the latter enclosing strip cultivation. Abandoned 18th/19th century.
Visited by OS (JM) 14 August 1980.
An enclosure or field is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet lxxxii). Three unroofed buildings and part of a field boundary are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10,560 map (1966).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 19 September 1995
Field Visit (25 November 2009)
NC 25816 14176
An earth and stone dyke encloses an area of improved pasture 155m by 115m, aligned E-W. The bank is 0.75m wide and 0.5m high with many truncated areas and no sign of an entrance. Within the enclosure is evidence of rig and furrow at the east end running NNW/SSE, approximately 6m in width.
North of the enclosure is a series of earth and stone, curvilinear dykes separating the land. One of the dykes is much stonier than the others and runs N/S down the hillside: this equates to the head-dyke MHG42539. The enclosure and dykes may be associated with HLP 125.
Just above the valley floor on a small mound, on the north banks of the River Ledbeg are three stone rubble shieling footings.
125A (NC 25904 14019) - 10.5m by 4.8m building, aligned E/W with walls spread up to 1m in places, constructed of varied gathered sub-angular blocks with an entrance to the south.
125B (NC 25909 14009) - A building 4.8m by 4.6m and up to 0.3m in height, with walls up to 1m spread. The structure is very overgrown with moss and bracken, much rubble infill and the south wall has been lost to the river.
125C - (NC 25919 14013) An enclosure 14m by 12m and up to 0.7m high, constructed of an earth and stone bank with very spread walls. The east wall may curve around the river bank by the south end of HLP 125B. A fourth sturcture HLP 125D was identified on the opposite bank of the stream, which appears to be the remains of a small mill, c. 7.2 m long x 4.3 m wide, rather poorly preserved but does have evidence of a mill lade running to the south.
(HLP_no 124-125)
Assynt's Hidden Lives Project 2009
