Monument record MHG44222 - Achlochan

NC00NW 60.00 0248 0703

46.01 NC 0243 0713 Farmstead (ACHIL94 260-2)

Achlochan House (NC 0248 0703) is roofed and occupied, and stands at the E edge of a block of improved fields, about 6ha in extent. The ruins of a farmstead stand 120m to the NW of the house at NC 0243 0713 (NC 00NW 46.01). About 300m to the SE of the house, at the E corner of the improved ground, there are another two buildings, partly roofed and now used as outbuildings; there is a stack stand 3.5m in diameter between the two buildings and a small stackyard is attached to the W side of the NW building. To the W of these buildings there are two huts, each in an angle of the dyke enclosing the improved ground, which appears to overlie both huts. One of these huts is situated at NC 0258 0696 (ACHIL94 487). It measures 3.8m in length by 2m in breadth within the footings of a turf and stone wall and it has an entrance on the SW side. The other hut, 100m to the SE at NC 0264 0689, measures 3.8m in length by 2.3m in breadth within a turf bank 0.3m high. It has an entrance on the NE side (ACHIL94 488). Finally, to the SE of the improved ground there is an area of lazy-bed cultivation, covering about 0.6ha (centred at NC 0268 0687).
The ONB of the OS (1881) describes Achlochan as 'a hamlet consisting of three houses situated north of Polglass on the property of the Duchess of Sutherland'. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Cromartyshire 1881, sheet iii) depicts a house on the site now occupied by Achlochan House, the farmstead to the NW and the buildings to the SE, all roofed. It also appears to show one of the huts (ACHIL94 487) also roofed. The improved ground is shown too, much as it remains today.
(ACHIL94 260-2; 487-8)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 20 June 1994
ONB 1881