Monument record MHG48170 - Cnoc Na Cainach

NMRS Report: (18/05/2006)
ND34SW 371 ND 30671 40074

This farmstead is situated on the S flank of Cnoc na Cainach, immediately N of an abandoned swath of improved ground. It comprises a single range, which is terraced into the slope on the N. The range measures 25.3m from E to W by 4.7m transversely over clay-bonded and lime-pointed walls 0.65m in thickness and up to 1.7m in height. It contains four compartments with entrances in their S sides. At the E end of the range there is a dwelling with a fireplace in the centre of its E end, and two cruck-slots are visible in its N side. The bottom of the eastern slot has been blocked, however, and its upper part has been widened and converted into an ambry. The S side of this compartment has been reduced to its footings and no trace of an entrance is now visible.
The adjacent compartment is separated from the first by an inserted mid-gable that abuts a blocked doorway in the N wall of the range. A doorway at the S end of the mid-gable allowed access into the adjacent dwelling, though this has been crudely blocked, and there is also a doorway into the compartment to the W at the S end of the shared partition. Both of these compartments have a single pair of cruck-slots visible in their walls, though the eastern of the slots on the N is blocked. The westernmost compartment, which may be round-ended, contains a creep in its N wall, but the W end and the S side have been reduced to mere footings.
An irregular, reed-filled hollow, probably a midden pit, lies immediately to the S of the W end of the range, while all that can now be seen of a garden directly to the W of the range, is part of its N wall, now reduced to a grass-grown stony bank.
The range is depicted roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxiv), but only the dwelling at the E end is shown roofed on the 2nd edition of the map (Caithness 1907, sheet xxiv).
(YARROWS04 103)
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 28 April 2004.