Loch Watenan North

ND34SW 85 32037 41520

This farmstead comprises a subrectangular building with an adjoining enclosure and lies in unimproved pasture at the NE end of Loch Watenan. The building has three compartments and is set end-on into a low rise. It measures 12.5m from E to W by 2.5m transversely within walls now reduced to low stony banks spread up to 1.5m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The building was probably entered from the S, where there are a number of depressions along the line of the wall. The wall of its adjoining enclosure to the S can still be traced, and likewise that of an irregularly shaped enclosure to the SE, although in places its perimeter seems to be defined by little more than a band of field-cleared stones. A consumption cairn lies within the field to the SE (YARROWS04 415; ND 3202 4143), and two smaller enclosures have been built against the inner face of the field-wall. The first (YARROWS04 92) lies in the NW corner and measures 5m by 2.5m within low rubble walls; the second (YARROWS04 91) abuts the W side and measures 10.3m by 2.5m within low rubble walls.

The building is depicted roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix), and is shown together with its adjoining enclosure and larger field-enclosure. By contrast, the 2nd edition of the map (1907, sheet xxix) shows the building unroofed, with the previously improved field to the S having reverted back to uncultivated ground. Both maps, but especially the earlier, show the trackways that served the farmstead and these can still be followed across the moorland.

(YARROWS04 91-3, 415)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, ATW) 17 June 2004