Monument record MHG28522 - Leataidh

NC60NE 2.04 6924 0531

This group of buildings is situated towards the E edge of the area enclosed by the Leataidh head-dyke (see NC 60NE 2.00), and on higher ground than the other settlements. In general, the remains here are less well-preserved than those lower down, several buildings are turf-built, and at least two buildings have had smaller huts built over them, all of which would appear to suggest that they belong to an earlier period than the remains lower down, and were abandoned at an earlier date.
The remains comprise three large buildings, one in fragmentary condition, five smaller buildings and outhouses, a corn-drying kiln and several small enclosures. One unroofed building and one enclosure are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheets xcvi). The largest building (ROG95 475, NC 6924 0531) measures 31m from E to W by 2.8m transversely within a faced-rubble wall 0.5m high and 0.7m thick, its long axis running down a gentle slope. It has three compartments, with a byre drain in the middle compartment and a possible bedneuk on the S side of the E (upper) compartment. There is a midden outside to the S and the building joins an enclosure on the N, against the W side of which there is a small hut (ROG95 474). About 70m to the SE there are the fragmentary remains of another building (ROG95 477) which has measured 23.7m in internal length, but whose sides (which may have been of turf) have been robbed out, leaving stone footings at either end and a byre drain running down the centre of its WSW end. A later building measuring 6.3m by 3m within rubble walls 0.7m thick and 0.3m high stands in the centre of the remains. The kiln (ROG95 476) stands between these two buildings. It has a stone-faced bowl set into the hillside and measuring 1.4m in diameter and at least 0.7m in depth, and there is a barn attached on the WSW, measuring internally 3.8m by 3m.
About 70m N of the first building, across an area of boggy ground, at NC 6917 0562, there is a group of three huts, one of which (ROG95 472) has been built over the robbed-out remains of an earlier building. This building measured internally 10.6m in length and 3m in breadth and had a drain in its E half, running down the S side of the interior and out at the SE corner. The later hut is built over the E end; rubble-built with square corners, it measures 4.9m by 2.8m internally. To the W of this there is another hut (ROG95 471), measuring 5.7m by 3.1m within walls reduced to stony banks, and there is another hut to the ESE (ROG95 473), measuring 6.7m by 2.3m within stony banks 0.6m thick; the latter hut has an outshot on its ESE end.
About 150m to the W of these structures, in bracken-covered ground at the rear of a terrace, there is a farmstead comprising two buildings set at right angles and forming the SW corner of a small enclosure. Both buildings have turf-and-stone walls now largely reduced to spread banks. The larger building (ROG95 712) measures internally 18.2m in length and 2.5m in breadth; the smaller one (ROG95 713) measures 8.2m by 3m and has opposed entrances in its side walls, indicating that it served as a barn.
(ROG95 471-7, 712-3)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 16 May and 20 June 1995