Monument record MHG54447 - Farmstead - Allt na Fainich, Contin

A farmstead and enclosure walls were recorded by NOSAS in 2007 as part of the Scotland's Rural Past Project at Allt na Fainich within a shallow saddle on a broad north facing spur amid birch woodland. Improved ground lay to the northeast under the route taken by the power lines. The site comprises a main building, a further possible building and a series of discontinuous earth and stone dykes.

The ruined walls of a rectangular building (211) at NH 42642 54876 measuring 12m x 3.5m internally on a northeast-southwest axis and originally of two compartments. Stone walls stand to a maximum 0.5m high and 0.5m thick with evidence for entrances at intervals in the long axis.

Some 70m northwest are the remains of a small building (226) at NH 42577 54913 located in a shallow angular depression on a steep east facing slope. It measures 3m x 1.5m internally on a northwest-southeast axis and is scarped into the slope at the rear. Sections of stone and earth dyke which still stand up to 0.5m high in places may have once formed part of the head dyke for the settlement.

The two principal sections are over 200m in length; (212/232) contours the slope and (233) runs downslope toward Loch Achonachie and has been bisected by the modern road.

Below the modern road is a substantial earth bank 1m high with a spread of 2m bordering an overgrown track(234)on its south side which was was traced for some 250m and may be a spur road accessing the farmstead and is not depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Ross-shire 1881, sheet lxxxvii). <1>

The site of the farmstead was visited during a walkover survey by Wardell and Armstrong in 2011 in advance of the proposed replacement Beauly-Mossford OHL project by SSE. Although it lay directly in the path of the new power line it was considered that the impact on the site would be negligible. <2>