Monument record MHG25243 - Achadh na Teanga

Delete - relink to NC60NE0017
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NC60NE 17.00 6659 0759

NC60NE 17.01 NC 6674 0738 Hut-circle
NC60NE 17.02 NC 6622 0742 Farmstead; Corn-drying kiln

Remains of 18th/19th century depopulation.
Visited by OS (JM) 3 October 1980.

This township is located on a SE-facing hillside overlooking the head of the Abhainn Leataidh. The remains comprise seven buildings, a kiln, two areas of rig cultivation and a number of small enclosures all within a roughly oval area of about 10ha, enclosed by earth-and-stone head-dykes, at least two phases of which were recorded. Towards the SE edge of the township there is a hut-circle (NC60NE 17.01) and to the W, on the N bank of the Allt Achadh na Teanga there is another group of buildings which is described separately, under NC60NE 17.02.
The main group of four buildings is centred on NC 6659 0759. The largest building (ROG95 563) measures 18.6m in length by 2.8m in breadth within a stony bank spread to 1.1m in thickness. The entrance is on the SW side and the interior is divided into two compartments, with a drain in the lower compartment running out at the S corner; there is a bedneuk in the upper compartment, measuring 1.5m broad and 1.7m deep. Built across the NW end of this building, forming a T-shape, there is another building (ROG95 564) 13.1m in length by 2.9m in breadth within faced-rubble walls which are only well preserved at the SW end, much of the rest having been robbed. Immediately to the S of these there stands a smaller building, constructed of turf and measuring 7.9m by 2.3m within walls 0.25m high and spread to 1.2m in thickness. The final building of this group (ROG95 566) stands to the SE, at the E edge of a subrectangular enclosure; it measures 13m in length by 2.9m in breadth within walls built of turf on a stone footing, except at the SSW end, which is stone-built and stands 0.5m high. This building is divided into two compartments, separated by a step down into the SSW end.
About 100m to the E of this group there is a corn-drying kiln, set into the slope on the S (NC 6659 0759, ROG95 562). It has a bowl which measures 1.6m in diameter and 0.9m in depth within a wall 0.9m thick, and to the N there is a barn measuring 4.6m in length by 2.3m in breadth with an entrance on its E side.
The other three buildings are situated close to the head-dyke, two to the W and one to the SE. The former stand close together across a gap in the head-dyke at NC 6648 0746; they measure 7.6m by 2.8m (ROG95 608) and 8.7m by 2.4m (ROG95 609) within faced-rubble walls spread up to 1m in thickness. Only slight traces remain of the final building, which stands just outside the enclosure on a level terrace (which also bears traces of rig cultivation) at NC 6683 0734 (ROG95 457); it measures 7.8m in length by 2.3m in breadth within walls which appear to have been mainly of turf, now spread to 1.2m thick and standing no more than 0.2m high.
Much of the ground within the head-dyke is covered with heather, but there are two large grassy areas in which rig cultivation is visible, amounting to a little under half the enclosed area.
Roy (1747-55) appears to show a settlement this location, set in the angle between two burns which are presumably the Allt Achadh na Teanga and the Allt na Luibe. He names the site 'Taserg', however, probably the same name as Tosc-airigh, now applied to a township about 800m to the SSE (NC60NE 14). It is not clear which site Roy recorded - if he mapped Tosc-airigh then he misplaced the Allt Achadh na Teanga. By the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet xcv) Achadh na Teanga had been abandoned, and only the head-dyke, an area of improved ground and one roofless building (probably ROG95 566) are depicted.
(ROG95 457, 562-6, 608-9)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, PJD) 7 June 1995
W Roy 1747-55