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MHG9941 - Prehistoric settlement - Carn Nan Uaigh

Summary

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Type and Period (2)

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Full Description

Carn nan Uaigh (NR).
OS 6"map, (1963)

The old hunting house in the Glen of Loth consisted of a gallery with a number of small rooms on the sides, each formed of three large stones - one on each side and one covering. At the end was a large oval apartment, and the passage or gallery was roofless - known locally as a "Uag" (Morrison 1883).
A farmhouse was built on its site about 1798 (OSA 1793); but by 1871 no remains were to be seen at the site (ONB 1871).
Pococke (1887) suggests that this was a chambered cairn as the name Carn nan Uaigh - "Cairn of the Tomb" - implies.
T Pennant 1776; OSA 1793; Name Book 1871; H Morrison 1883; Pococke 1887.

Situated on a low rise at the end of a spur within an early modern field enclosed by a dry-stone dyke, is a complex of stone-built structures named Carn nan Uaigh, heavily robbed and now turf-covered. It includes the remains of two wag type homesteads, and the footings of a rectangular house, probably the "farmhouse" built about 1798 noted by OSA (1793). The summit of the rise has been scarped around the southwest and NW to create a platform-effect, at what period and for what reason is uncertain.
The better-preserved homestead on the east slopes of the rise is rectangular, oriented E-W, but overlaid by rubble wall on the west side and denuded in the east which is noticeably built up above natural ground level. The north and south walls, obscured by tumble, are approximately 2.0m thick and survive to 0.1m high. The homestead is about 5.0m in internal width, and contains two parallel rows each of four erect stones protruding up to 0.6m high above the debris-choked interior.
All that remains of the second homestead are four similar upright slabs protruding through an amorphous mass of turf-covered rubble, apparently delineated on the east side by some form of stone build-up. The "farmhouse" footings occur immediately to the NW of the homestead.
Any trace of cultivation which may have been associated with the homesteads would be obliterated by later activity.
Revised at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (E G C) 5 June 1961 and (J M) 7 May 1976.

Photographs of the site were submitted by D Scott in 2014. <1>

The prehistoric settlement was Scheduled by Historic Environment Scotland in 2017. <2>

Sources/Archives (7)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 9347 1404 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC91SW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	KILDONAN

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