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MHG10291 - Site of Broch, Cnoc Chaisteal, Helmsdale

Summary

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Type and Period (2)

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Full Description

Knockcastle - a circular feature is named and marked on Kirk's 1771 plan of "the King's Highway to Caithness" NLS MSS Dep 313/3582
The site is not named, but possibly is the circular feature that is marked lying immed outside the eastern area of the new planned town on 1820 estate plan of East Helmsdale NLS MSS Acc 10225/345 - HAW 7/2004

ND01NW 24 0310 1525.
Stone Cup, Lamp, Querns etc found (NAT) OS 25" map, (1971)

A villa named Cnoc Chaisteal is built on the site of a broch. In digging the foundations there were recovered a steatite cup, a stone lamp, a saddle quern, portions of one or more rotary querns and a stone whorl. All of these objects were preserved at the house. A quantity of shells of edible molluscs, exposed in a small piece of garden adjoining, probably indicated the site of a kitchen midden.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909. <1>

There is no trace of a broch at Cnoc Chaisteal, built about 1880, and the present whereabouts of the finds is unknown.
Visited by OS (N K B) 2 December 1976.

ND01 3 CNOC CHAISTEAL ('Helmsdale')
ND/0310 1525
Site of possible broch in Kildonan, Sutherland, named after a house which was built on top of it at about 1880. When the foundations were excavated there were found a handled steatite cup, a stone lamp, a saddle quern of granite, fragments of rotary querns and a thick stone whorl. Part of a shell midden was seen in the garden [2]. In 1976 no trace of the site could be found and the whereabouts of the finds is unknown [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 01 NW 24: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 134, no. 386: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 777. <1>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred ND 0310 1524 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	ND01NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	KILDONAN

Finds (7)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

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