Glenarigolach Abandoned Township, Wester Ross

by Anne McInnes (NOSAS)

Glenarigolach meaning ‘ glen of the forked shieling ‘ is accessed by a stalkers path leading up the hill on the E side of the Gruinard river. The area is centred on NG 98237 89963 and lies at a height of 100m. The glen was once well populated and Glenarigolach lies between the smaller settlements of Ridorcha and Craigour (See HER Record).

Looking down the glen at Glenarigolach

During the Highland Archaeology Festival 2014 NOSAS led a walk to the site on their second visit to the area. We were not quite so lucky with the weather as in April, but still enjoyed exploring the ruins and features, although some were submerged in bracken (see also our earlier post on the nearby settlement of Keppoch, which was recorded in April 2014).

There is little documented detailed history on the area, but Meryl Marshall (NOSAS) is on the case so all will eventually be revealed!  She has found that Glenarigolach is marked on the Pont 4 map 1583–96 as Ary Gaulach. We do know that the glen was cleared for a sheep run around 1840.

Jim Buchanan has mapped the visible walls in the area using aerial photographs, and a walkover survey with Anne and Terry Doe has so far listed 33 buildings and features. An extensive muir burn in 2013 has revealed more walls and field boundaries and a roundhouse, so further surveying will hopefully take place in early 2015 before everything is once again submerged in grass and bracken.

Aerial View of Glenarigolach

Keppoch: Recording an Abandoned Township in Wester Ross

By James McComas (NOSAS)

Keppoch is a cleared village near Dundonnell in Wester Ross (NH 09519 88665). I have a visited a few such settlements before but it did not take long to realise that Keppoch was something special. This was partly the situation; overlooking as it does the wide valley floor of Strath Beag near the entrance to Little Loch Broom, with the snowy shoulders of An Teallach looming on the horizon. However the number and extent of the buildings easily identifiable was the real draw. Also poignancy was provided by the historical information we had, largely complied by Cathy Dagg, which showed that the settlement had been apparently cleared of its tenants between the 1820’s and 40’s. Only four households were listed as remaining in the 1841 census; a weaver, a carpenter, a fisher and a cotter.

Anne MacInnes (who originally suggested the site), Meryl Marshall and Beth Blackburn between them had organised a four day programme running across the last weekend of April. Friday and Saturday would be taken up with clearing the site, whilst Sunday would be the meat of recording and drawing the features. Monday was reserved for a trip out to another nearby cleared village at Glenarigolach.

I did not manage to make it down until Saturday lunchtime and by this point clearing operations were well under way with a few newly discovered buildings being added to Meryl’s original drawing. The afternoon was spent disposing of the remaining brambles and gorse, and was finished with a tour of the village during which each building had numbers attached for easy identification the following day. After this everybody was more than happy to get washed and changed before reconvening for a very pleasant meal at the Aultbea Hotel.

Meryl Marshall had prepared a fearsomely comprehensive information booklet for the weekend. This had been emailed to all the attendees with stern warnings to thoroughly digest the contents prior to Sunday. Meryl had actually done a fantastic job of producing a simple but effective guide to recording and surveying a township, including handy “top tips” (the whole manual can be accessed at here and is well worth checking out). It informed us that standard of information to be collected could range from a “one star” up to a “five star” treatment. We were to give Keppoch a four star treatment, which would involve a full written description, photos and a dimensioned sketch of each building.

Meryl in lecture mode at Keppoch