SHG30021 - ARO67: A Minister’s abandoned farmstead at Greeanan, Strath Brora, Sutherland

Type Text/Report/Fieldwork Report
Title ARO67: A Minister’s abandoned farmstead at Greeanan, Strath Brora, Sutherland
Author/Originator Hunter Blair, A.
Date/Year 2026
Organisation GUARD Archaeology Ltd
Archaeology Reports Online 67
International Standard Book Number 978-1-9195636-0-2
International Standard Serial Number 2052-4064

Abstract/Summary

The extant remains of Greeanan Steading comprised six roofless, heavily dilapidated structures, all of which appear originally to have been thatched. A vestigial garden, now marked by a dispersed patch of rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum), survives on the steep, south-west facing slope below the principal range, testifying to cultivation more than a century ago after the steading’s abandonment in the early twentieth century. Architectural style, documentary and cartographic sources place the original steading in the early to mid-eighteenth century, although the complex was modified periodically and most recently in the nineteenth century under Walter Ross’s stewardship. Its present survival is limited to wall bases and selected interior fittings, although the site has high interpretive value for studies of post-Improvement rural architecture, tenancy change and the material aftermath of the Highland Clearances in the Brora area.

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