Monument record MHG13291 - Tosc-Airigh

NC60NE 14 6696 0684

14.01 6713 0686, 6694 0676 and 6710 0672 Hut-circles

Tasery.
W Roy 1747-55.

Now Tosc-airigh, centred NC 670 068 (OS 6-inch map, 1969). Remains of 18th/19th century depopulation including a corn-drying kiln at NC 6688 0691.
Visited by OS (JM) 3 October 1980.

The remains of this township are spread across a hillside on the SW side of the Abhainn Leataidh, just below its confluence with the Allt Achadh na Teanga. A head-dyke encloses about 10ha of ground, partly grass-grown but with large areas of heather and bracken, within which there are the remains of eight buildings, four huts, a corn-drying kiln and areas of rig cultivation. There are also three hut-circles (NC60NE 14.01).
The buildings measure between 7.3m and 18.5m in length by between 2.3m and 3.2m in breadth within walls usually 0.6m to 0.7m thick. Some of these are rectangular structures with squared corners (ROG95 620, 624, 625, 628), but others are less regularly built, which may suggest more than one period of construction. Several buildings are subdivided into two compartments, and the two largest (ROG95 623 and 627) have byre drains running the length of the lower compartment, that in building (ROG95 623) running out the NE end beneath a lintel still in position. A third byre drain is visible within the S compartment of building (ROG95 624); this compartment is of a different build to the rest of the structure and may belong to an earlier phase. Of the smaller buildings, one (ROG95 628) is noteworthy as it appears to have had opposed entrances, and so may have served as a barn, while another stands within a hut-circle (ROG95 633, see NC60NE 14.01).
The four huts (ROG95 621-2, 630-1) are smaller structures, measuring between 2.8m and 5.2m in length and between 2.4m and 3.5m in breadth within walls up to 0.8m thick usually constructed of faced rubble. One hut (ROG95 631), a D-shaped structure built against the base of a steep slope, may have been merely a pen. The corn-drying kiln (ROG95 626 at NC 6692 0685) has an oval bowl of faced-rubble built into the hillside and measuring 2.2m N to S by 1.8m transversely and 1.2m in depth. There is a barn attached on the E which measures internally 3.8m in length by 2.3m in breadth, with an entrance at the E end.
Around these remains there are a number of small irregularly-shaped enclosures, occasional clearance heaps, and, on a terrace at NC 6699 0688, a group of about fifteen small storage pits. Two main areas of rig are visible, one close to the centre of the site at NC 6695 0682, the other on lower ground by the river, at NC 6715 0680. The rigs in both areas are curved in plan, those in the upper area being up to 8m across, with a sharp, high-backed profile, those near the river being about 6m across with a flattened profile.
Roy (1747=55) identifies a settlement named 'Taserg', but he appears to place it farther NW, across the Allt Achadh na Teanga, where there are the remains of another township (NC60NE 17). It is not clear whether he has conflated two settlements, or whether only one existed at that time. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet xcv) depicts part of the head-dyke enclosing this township, two areas of improved or cultivated ground but only one building, at NC 6712 0685 (ROG95 620), which by then was roofless. The Name Book describes the site as 'some pasture land lying on the south side of Abhainn Leudaichte'.
(ROG95 620-8, 630-3)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 8 June 1995