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MHG491 - Township, Unimore

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Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

Known locally as Inniemore, the township has also been known as Unimore, Aoineadh Mor or Aonach Mor after the ridge, below which it lies. It was first recorded in 1674, occupied at least by 1716, had a population of 45 in 1779 and was cleared in 1824 to make way for sheep. The area was acquired by the Forestry Commission in the 1930’s and subsequently planted with trees.

The township consists of 22 houses and outbuildings, four kailyards, as well as smaller enclosures, and seven corn-drying kilns, all enclosed within a head-dyke and accompanied by evidence of arable cultivation. The head-dyke encloses an area 590m E-W by 380m but the houses are clustered on either side of the Allt an Aoinidh Mhoir within an area 330m E-W by 140m. The larger buildings, presumably houses, are round-angled rectangular in plan and measure between 9m and 11m in length and 4.50m and 5.50m in width. Nearly all have a roughly East – West orientation with entrances facing the stream. All have thick walls, sometimes with a pronounced batter, such as at Site No. 7, where the walls taper from a width of 1.15m at the base to 0.70m at the top. Many of the buildings are well-preserved and some survive to probably their original wall-head height, notably Site No. 42, which reaches a massive 2.30m in height at the SE corner. Numerous examples of cruck slots survive, rather dilapidated at Sites Nos. 6 and 20 but well-preserved at Sites Nos. 24 and 25.

Some degree of relative chronology can be inferred from the remains. Sites Nos. 24 and 25, in which splayed window embrasures survive in situ, may be relatively late while the cluster of rather dilapidated houses, Sites 19 – 21, may be relatively early. It is possible that the adjacent structure, Site No 18, which is almost oval-shaped in plan, was a stance for a turf or creel house, and therefore also relatively early.

Six of the corn-drying kilns consist of open bowls, often built into the slope but the seventh was built into a round-angled rectangular building. Of the four large enclosures, Site No. 11 is perhaps the most striking; a considerable depth of soil has built up within. Evidence of cultivation is also apparent at the SE end of the site; the fourteen small cairns of stone, found along the edges of natural terraces, were presumably the result of field clearance prior to cultivation.

In 1993 the trees were harvested and, in 1997, a footpath was constructed around the settlement.
Field Verification Project (West Lochaber) - J Robertson, 03/2004
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In the preliminary archaeological survey of Unimore, a horizontal water mill was recorded. J Kirby, Polloch, info passed on by G Clark, Treslaig (ref 31).
AMF, Highland Council, 09/03/01

Photos taken 09.01.01, labelled in reference to Jennifer Robertson's ground plan of 1993. See SMR associated documents for full field survey report by Jennifer Robertson, Ardtornish, 1993 prior to felling and interpretation by Forest Enterprise.
AMF, 10.01.01.

NM65SE 1 centred on 656 519

NM 656 519. Unimore. The remains of 21 houses and enclosures seen in 1956 lie in an area now mostly covered with forest. Occupied by 1755 and until c.1841, the main clearance being in 1824.
P Gaskell 1968

Unimore not visited. About nineteen houses shown on OS 6"map.
Information from OS (N K B) 16 June 1970

Nineteen unroofed buildings, one of which is a long building, five enclosures, a sheepfold, a head-dyke and a separate field lying approximately 200m to the NW are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet liv), but they are not shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1972).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 20 May 1998

NM 656 519 A watching brief was carried out at Inniemore pre-clearance settlement during the construction of a footpath around the site. The construction method caused little ground disturbance, though a possible new boulder wall, 4.3m long, up to 1m wide and 0.3m high, was revealed 20m to the NE of house no 6.
Sponsor: Forest Enterprise.
J Robertson 1997

Sources/Archives (12)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NM 6558 5189 (478m by 300m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NM65SE
Civil Parish	MORVERN
Geographical Area	LOCHABER

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (3)

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