Monument record MHG12345 - Tumore

NC53SW 2 520 348.

Fanochdill: A settlement of about five buildings with arable.
W Roy 1747-55

Area NC 520 348: On the lower N-facing slopes of Cnoc an t' Sabhail are numerous building and enclosure foundations denoting the former township of Tumore, and possibly other smaller communities. The greatest concentration of buildings has been around Tumore itself (where later and more recent buildings still stand in ruins) and also some 500m SW of it. Here, are houses 24, 32 and 42m long sub- divided into three or four compartments (the longest are no doubt ranges of houses) and about six or seven smaller ones varying from 5m by 3m to 11m by 3m. There are two ruined kilns in this group. About seven fields bounded by earth and stone dykes are associated with the township. At the extreme SW end of the area are two large cleared areas in the southernmost of which is a rocky knoll. On the summit of this is a small turf hut 2.5m square surrounded by the scant remains of an oval enclosure measuring some 16m by 10m and on the N side of which abuts an annexe, 7m by 3m.
Within the northern cleared area are four small turf shieling-like huts measuring about 5m by 2m. They are poorly defined. Between the two areas is a sub- rectangular enclosure measuring some 18m by 5m.
From its situation, Tumore may be the township of Fanochdill on Roy's map.
W Roy 1747-55; Visited by OS (JLD) 5 May 1961

The deserted township of Tumore is largely as described by the previous field investigator. The features on the 'rocky knoll' at NC 5129 3436 are rather obscure. The small bothy footing is clearly defined; but whether an enclosure circled the top of the knoll is unclear. The 'annexe' noted above clearly survives, unlevelled, on the N flank of the knoll, and there are strong indications of walling springing from the SW and SE corners of it, but a complete circuit of the knoll top cannot be traced. The evidence is confused by natural rock outcrop on the periphery of the knoll summit. The 'annexe', which is sub-rectangular, is open on the S side and is formed by single blocks on edge. This mode of construction is not repeated in any of the rectangular early modern footings, and, togethr with a heavy peat ad heather covering, it may pre-date the majority of footings.
revised at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (JB) 27 June 1980

A township comprising four roofed and four unroofed buildings, fourteen enclosures and a head-dyke is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet liii). Four roofed and twenty-one unroofed buildings, thirteen enclosures and a head-dyke are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10,560 map (1963).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 3 October 1995