Two weeks or so ago we were walking the Estate track from Drummuie up to Loch Lunndaidh when we spotted what looked like a walled field on the lower slopes the hill to our right - that is, to the north of the track. Although some of the intervening ground was still boggy from recent rain we....
....managed to reach the site. The field measures 20m by 20m and the rock wall is of substantial construction, being up to a metre thick in places and, originally, probably as high, but much of it has fallen.
The field might have had one of two uses, either as a place in which to grow crops or as an animal enclosure.
On returning home I checked the area using the satellite facility on
Bing Maps, and spotted both the field and several further structures.
Field 1 is the field we visited, while fields 2 and 3 are open areas which were almost certainly cultivated as they are thick with bracken, while Field 4 is a further walled field. The track to the left of the satellite picture is clearly visible in the top photograph. However, the feature which most struck me was the one within the red ellipse: it's almost certainly a dwelling house, divided into four areas, but of a most unusual length.
While the field we visited is marked on the modern OS 1:25,000 map - arrowed above - there is no record of any of the structures on the early OS maps in the National Library of Scotland, nor do they appear on archaeological sites such as Canmore or the Highland Historic Environment Record.
This is the sort of archaeological investigation I love: the site deserves another visit, and fairly soon, before the bracken starts to shoot.
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