Monument record MHG26129 - Badenscallie

NC00NW 37 centred on 0410 0670

A head-dyke and fifteen huts are distributed in rough pasture to the NE of the public road past Badenscallie. The head-dyke runs roughly parallel with the road at a distance of 150m to 250m from the Allt a' Bhaid-Choillie (NC 0383 0700) for some 750m before being lost in the peat cover (NC 0441 0652). It may once have extended as far as the Allt Ach a' Bhraighe where there is a length of about 200m of bank to the NW of the burn (NC 0462 0635 and see NC00NW 28).
The huts lie on both sides of the head-dyke and may have served as sheep-bothies for the crofters. Six of the huts, all of them roofed, and the head-dyke are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS six-inch map (Cromartyshire 1881, Sheet iii). Three of the huts are built against the side of the head-dyke, which they post-date (ACHIL94 558-560), six (ACHIL94 573, 575-7, 580-1) lie at the foot of a terrace along the back of the crofts, whereas the others are clustered around the gullies of the Badenscallie Burn and its main tributary to the N (ACHIL94 578-9, 561-64). They range from 1.5m to 5.7m in length by between 1.2m to 2.9m in breadth within faced-rubble walls 0.45m to 0.85m thick. The best preserved stands up to 1.5m in height, with its lintelled entrance still in place 1m above the current ground surface (ACHIL94 561); others are reduced to as little as 0.2m in height (ACHIL94 559-560). One of the group beside the Badenscallie Burn has a window set in its S end (ACHIL94 562), and two huts have platforms in one corner (ACHIL94 579, 561). Only one is associated with an enclosure (ACHIL94 578), and one, lying immediately NE of the public road, is annotated 'Smithy' on the 1st edition map of the OS 6-inch map (Cromartyshire 1881, Sheet iii).
The length of head-dyke between the Badenscallie Burn and the Allt a' Bhaid-choille may be that which is depicted on the map of Badenscallie Farm by Morrison in 1775 (SRO, E746/189), but if so, it has been extended to the SE since 1775.
(ACHIL94 558-564, 573, 575-581)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 11 August 1994