Monument record MHG21419 - Barn, Mains of Applecross Farm

A now-roofless Hebridean barn at Mains of Applecross.

NG74SW 21.02 NG 7118 4427

Applecross, heather-roofed barn

The barn roof has collapsed.
Information from RCAHMS (SG), June 1997.

Renumbered from NG74SW0039B
See also:
NG74SW0039 Mains of Applecross Farm (parent)
NG74SW0017 Smithy
NG74SW0019 Millpond Dam
NG74SW0024 "Crac" Barn
NG74SW0025 Steading
NG74SW0027 Top Barns
Jhooper, 14/6/2002

Definitely no roof on this building now, in derelict condition - HAW 5/2003

The barn was surveyed during a condition survey in 2009 of the Applecross Top Barn (MHG16650) when the Applecross Trust commisioned work to guage the potential of the surviving barn to be used as an orientation and interpretation point for the nearby Applecross Broch. A description of the building was provided at the time of the survey:

Sometimes known as Hebridean barns, there are two barns aligned with one another in a north-south orientation located on raised ground above the main farms. Each barns has open sides which originally would have been infilled with wattle or woven panelts to mximise air movement from the direction of the prevailing wind, for the purposes of threshing corn and drying hay. Latterly it is understood that in the northernmost barn two deep pits were dug for silage. Both barns are belived to be of late eighteenth century adte (or possibly earlier), and are listed Category B

The southernmost barn is now derelict and was of a more sophistiacted construction developed from the earlier barn, principally of coursed limestone blocks laid to a similar battered profile with shell-lined mortar. The layout, also of five open bays, was symmetrical with the doorways at the centre of the plan where the bay width was reduced. The heather thatched roof had survived until the 1970s when it was photographed in various stages of dilapidation. All evidence of the roof has now been cleared out, and it is possible that some of the piers were damaged when the roof fell as a number of them are no longer intact. The southeast corner pier has rotated on its base. The barn floor had been replaced with concrete slab. <1>