Monument record MHG28520 - Leataidh

NC60NE 2.02 6880 0548

The remains of this township comprise six buildings, three smaller huts or outhouses, a corn-drying kiln and at least six small enclosures, situated on a terrace, rocky in places, above the Abhainn Leataidh, and on the slopes running down to the river. To the N there is a large area of rig cultivation, described under NC60NE 2.01, and another strip of cultivated ground runs SE towards another township described under NC60NE 2.03. Two unroofed buildings and one enclosure are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheets xcvi)
The focus of the township is at NC 6880 0548 where there is a farmstead formed of three tightly grouped buildings and two enclosures. The largest building (ROG95 701) is built at the base of a rock outcrop on the NNE side; it measures 22.7m in length by 3m in breadth within walls up to 0.5m high and it is slightly curved on plan, the SSW side bowing outwards and the NNE side bowing inwards. The interior has been divided into three compartments and there is an entrance into the lowest (WNW) compartment, which also has a byre-drain running out at the SW corner. There appears also to have been an entrance to the central compartment through a porch on the SW side - a feature which may originally have been a bedneuk. This building also has an outshot or extension at its ENE end which measures 5.1m by 3.1m internally; there is a drain running the length of the building between it and the outcrop, and outside the entrance there is a midden scoop edged with a revetment wall. Immediately to the SE of the building there is a subrectangular enclosure on a shelf of flat ground, and to the NW there are two buildings which form the E angle of a second enclosure (ROG95 702-3). The larger of these measures 13.4m by 2.6m internally and has a drain running down the centre of its NW half (ROG95 703); a mass of collapsed rubble at the NW end suggests that it may have had a stone gable.
The kiln (ROG95 700) is situated to the SE of the farmstead, built against an outcrop on the NE. It measures 1.7m in diameter and at least 1m in depth within a wall 1.1m thick and there is a barn attached on the SW side which measures 2.7m by 2.4m internally, with an entrance on the SW end. The other structures (ROG95 698-9, 704-7) are scattered to the S and E of those just described. Most of these are rubble-built rectangular constructions with squared corners, but one stands out, not only because it is larger than the others, but because its bowed side walls appear to be entirely of turf while its end walls are of stone (ROG95 707 at NC 6894 0541). It measures internally 15.2m in length and 2.9m in breadth, and appears to have had two compartments.
(ROG95 698-707)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 20 June 1995