Monument record MHG11378 - Upper Suisgill

A minor deserted settlement, comprising six buildings reduced to mere footings, and a corn drying kiln, occurs on the slope immediately above the river flood plain, and adjacent to a souterrain (NC82NE 15).
Visited by OS 2 February 1976.

This township comprises two clusters of buildings and enclosures on either side of the Suisgill Burn near its confluence with the River Helmsdale. That to the WNW of the burn lies in a field on the haughland at NC 895 250 and that to the SE of the burn occupies the slopes of the river terrace at NC 898 250. A head-dyke encloses the haughland on both sides of the burn and may be seen immediately E of the public road to the SE of the burn and below or S of the public road to the WNW of the burn. Traces of rig, 7m in width, may be seen within the ambit of this western arm, which cuts across an earlier enclosure at NC 8920 2515, measuring some 50m from E to W by 40m transversely with what may be a building towards its E side, immediately N of the head-dyke.
The building cluster on the haugh comprises three buildings (KILD91 438-40), all much reduced, two enclosures and what may be the stance of a fourth building on the ESE side of an enclosure at NC 8963 2504. The buildings range from 10.6m to 17.6m in length by some 4m in breadth of which only one (KILD91 438) was sufficiently well-preserved to determine the thickness of the walls. This was a building of three compartments, which measured 17.6m from WNW to ESE by 3.6m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness and 0.3m in height.
The building cluster on the slopes of the river-terrace includes four buildings, a kiln and an enclosure (KILD91 187-190, 200): a trackway cuts a groove up the terrace immediately NNE of the buildings. There are two long buildings, built across the contour, 17m and 31m in length respectively by some 2.75m in breadth in each case; they are subdivided by steps into three and four compartments respectively. The larger of the two buildings is remarkable for its rounded-ends, scooped interior and thick walls (1.6m) (KILD91 188). One of the two small builldings, which measures at least 5.6m in length, has been truncated in road construction at its SW end; the other, which measures 9.6m in length, is also stepped into three parts to make best use of the slope. The kiln is set into the slope at the foot of the knoll occupied by a broch (NC82SE 11), to the SE of the buildings, and measures 1.5m in diameter by 1.3m in height with a flue on the NW side, in front of which is a grassy spread.
In 1527 the lands of 'Seyisgill' were included in a grant of James V to William Sinclare (Reg Magni Sig Reg Scot 1513-1546). There were five tenants, each with one hearth, listed in the Hearth Tax return of 1690 (SRO E69/23/1), but by 1808 it had been let to a single tenant, Thomas Houston, and by 1813 had been turned over to sheep. (Adam 1972; KILD91 187-190, 200, 438-400)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 16 July 1991.