Monument record MHG6711 - Poll A' Mhuineil

On an E-facing slope (about 84m OD) overlooking Poll a' Mhuineil and set at the head of a series of fields delineated by low drystone dykes, there are the remains of a building and a remarkably well-preserved sheepfold. The fold, but not the building, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (1st edition of the Ordnance Survey map, Inverness-shire, sheet 77, 1876). These remains are as follows:-
1: To the rear of a terrace at the foot of a steep boulder-strewn and outcrop-studded slope, beside a burn, there are the remains of a building (NG 8355 0636). It is rectangular on plan, constructed of random rubble, and measures 7.5m from NW to SE by 4.4m transversely over a wall reduced to its lowest course (0.7m in thickness and 0.4m in average height). There are opposed lateral entrances towards the NW
end of the long-walls (0.7m and 0.65m wide respectively). A drystone wall extends from the SE end-wall of the building and hooks round the front of the terrace to delineate a field bounded on the WNW by the burn. The pattern of field-walls over this part of the hillside is exceptionally well preserved and provides a contrast to the use of earthen banks elsewhere.
2: Bounded by the head-dyke at the head of the fields overlooking Poll a' Mhuineil, and occupying a gentle S-facing slope, beside a burn, there is a subrectangular 19th-century sheepfold (NG 8356 0642). It is well built of random rubble, with rounded angles and a turf coping, and measures 35m from W to E by 27.3m transversely over walls 0.9m to 1.2m in thickness, standing on average 1.2m in height. The interior is divided into a yard and two pens (that on the N subdivided), with a corridor between. There are entrances respectively in the N, W and S walls of the fold, and lintelled creeps emitting from the pends. The central passage terminates at the yard in a curved spur-wall. There is a lambing pen in the NW angle of the fold and a rubbing stone (1.15m high, 0.65m wide at the base and 0.2m thick) beside the SW corner. A drystone dyke (lintelled over the burn) links the fold to the field enclosing the terrace on the S and to the neighbouring building.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 6 June 1991.
RCAHMS 1991.

Smith, I M, 1991, Knoydart: an archaeological survey, 27, nos. 15.1, 15.2; plate 15.2; sheet 2; location map (Text/Report/Fieldwork Report). SHG2668.