Warehouse

ND34SW 100.14 3057 4072

A farmstead comprising three unroofed buildings, one of which is a long building, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix). Two unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1976).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 3 April 1996

The ruins of this farmstead are situated on a heather- and grass-grown terrace above and to the E of the Burn of Warehouse. The steading comprises two buildings, one of which is a long range (YARROW04 124), the other, immediately to the S is much shorter (YARROWS04 125).

The range measures 28.5m from E to W by 3.7m transversely within heather- and grass-grown, roughly coursed rubble walls 0.6m in thickness and up to 1.1m in height. It contains four compartments, including a kiln-barn at the E end. The main compartment of the barn has opposed doorways on the N and S, and there is another door adjacent to the kiln at the N end of the E end. The interior of the barn has been levelled into the slope on the E and three courses of what appears to be the walls of a curving drain survive in the SW corner. The kiln measures 1.8m in diameter within rubble walls up to 1.2m in thickness.

The remaining three compartments are also levelled into the slope, creating a stepped appearance to the interior, and are interconnected by doorways in the S end of the respective partition walls There appears to be only one external entrance, and it is situated on the S side opposite the partition wall between the westernmost and adjacent compartment. The N wall of the third compartment from the E end contains a cruck-slot and a rectangular alcove, measuring 1m from E to W by 0.5m transversely. Two opposed cruck-slots are visible in the most westernmost compartment. A drain in the centre of the end wall of the range probably indicates that the W end of the range contained a byre or stable.

The building immediately S of the range measures 7.6m from E to W by 2.4m transversely within grass-, heather- and bracken-grown rubble walls 0.65m in thickness and up to 0.6m in height. The interior, which contains two compartments, is choked with stones, and there is an entrance into the E compartment in its N side. Both buildings are depicted unroofed on the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1887, sheet xxix; 1907, sheet xxix). These maps also depict a garden running down the slope from the buildings to an un-named stream. Only the top part of this garden is now visible, marked by the tumbled remains of a stone wall. Within the garden, about 20m S of the buildings, is a clearance cairn measuring 1.5m in diameter.

The farmstead is surrounded by traces of a contemporary field-system defined by stony banks, attached to which is an enclosure and a possible building. The enclosure, which lies 33m to the E of the steading, measures about 6.5m from NNW to SSE by 4.5m transversely within a low rubble wall. The building (YARROWS04 294), which lies 90m to the ENE, was previously noted as a 'structure' (Mercer and Hill 1985, No.107b; fig 88). It measures 6m from NW to SE by 2.4m transversely within roughly coursed, heather- and grass-grown rubble walls 0.6m in thickness and 0.35m in height on the NW, NE and SE, where they are overlain by a ruined field-wall. The SW side appears to been heavily robbed, and the interior, which has been levelled back into the SW-facing slope, contains two compartments,

(YARROWS04 124, 125, 294)

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, PM) 12 May 2004