Monument record MHG10417 - Collinstown

NC60NE 12 6772 0667

'Some ruins and rough pasture on N side of Abhainn Leataidh.' (Name Book compiled c.1873)
Name Book (Sutherland).

Remains of 18th/19th century depopulation including a corn-drying kiln at NC 6776 0665.
Visited by OS (JM) 3 October 1980.

This township, which is situated in rough pasture on N side of the Lettie River, comprises 4 buildings, a corn-drying kiln, 2 enclosures, a group of what may be 4 storage pits, and a head-dyke that encompasses all but 2 of the buildings (ROG95 552-3).
One of the buildings (at NC 6775 0672, ROG95 552), which is much longer than the others, may have been a byre-house. It measures 23.4m from NW to SE by 3.4m transversely within faced-rubble walls, 0.6m thick, standing up to 1m high, with an outshot and a bedneuk on the NE, an entrance on either side, and a byre-drain in the lower, SE end, running out at the S corner. The three other buildings range from 7.4-11m in length of which the longest is 3.2m in breadth and the smaller two 2.2m in breadth, within faced-rubble walls, 0.6-0.7m thick, and each with an entrance in one side. Both the smaller buildings are sub-divided into unequal compartments and there is an enclosure on the W of the largest (ROG95 549). The kiln (NC 6776 0665), which has a barn on its SE, measures 2.9m in diameter within faced-rubble walls about 1m thick and 1.1m deep; the barn extends 5.3m to the SE by 3m in breadth with an entrance in the SW side (ROG95 550).
The head-dyke encloses a roughly rectangular area, about 350m from NNE to SSW by about 300m transversely, on the NE of the Lettie Burn, most of which is covered with rank heather, making it difficult to determine if there were any traces of cultivation. The storage pits, which are grouped together a short distance SW of the building attached to an enclosure (ROG95 549) within the head-dyke of the township, measure about 2m to 3m across.
The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map depicts two unroofed buildings and two enclosures at this site (Sutherlandshire 1879, Sheet xcvi).
(ROG95 549-553)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 7 June 1995