Castlehill Pavement Works

ND16NE 42.00 centred 195 685

For associated Castlehill Harbour (ND 1978 6858), see ND16NE 41.

ND16NE 42.01 1952 6860 Windmill

ND16NE 42.02 195 686 Pond

ND16NE 42.03 19250 68350 Quarry

ND16NE 42.04 194 687 Spoil Heap

ND16NE 42.05 18650 68250 Upper Quarry

ND16NE 42.06 1950 6869 Cottages

ND16NE 42.07 1957 6861 House

ND16NE 42.08 196 686 Offices

(Location cited as ND 195 685). Castlehill Pavement Works, early 19th century. The scattered remains of an extensive quarry, workmen's cottages (single storey) and dressing areas.

J R Hume 1977.

An extensive site which comprises flagstone quarries (ND16NE 42.03 and ND16NE 42.05 ), a cutting yard with machinery powered by water and steam (ND16NE 42.02), wind powered water pump (ND16NE 42.01), worker's housing (ND16NE 42.06), a farm steading (ND16NE 48), a harbour (ND16NE 41), the owner's manison house (ND16NE 40) and spoil heaps (ND16NE 42.04). The works was disused by 1914. Mush of the quarry has now been backfilled. All of the buildings at the cutting yard site have been demolished and cleared to ground level and all the machinery has been removed. The worker's houses are disused.

The Ordnance Survey 1st edition 25-inch maps of 1872 and 1905 (Caithness, sheet VI.10) show the extent of the flagstone quarry and the location of the works. The cutting yard was used to dress and saw the quarried stone before it was shipped from the harbour (ND16NE 41). By the early 1990s, part of the quarry, cutting yard, dam, water wheel pit, windmill stump and a portion of the steading have been transformed into a museum and interpretation centre. The ONB entry (1872) states that the works was powered by water and steam.

[See MS/744/63/1-5]

Visited by RCAHMS (GJD) November 1991

OS Name Book, 1872