Auchindrain for Argyll

The staple grain at Auchindrain was oats. Before the oats could be milled for human consumption, they had to be toasted, in the Township’s corn-drying kiln. This building is built over part of a corn-drying kiln. Built originally as a small barn, Building K was later used as the Bull and Wool House, it being the building where the fleeces taken from the sheep in summer were stored until merchants purchased them. It was also where the Township bull was housed over the winter months.

Whilst the current timber partition wall was added to the building by the Museum it is probably located in the position of the original partition wall. The building has offset doorways within the long-walls suggesting that it originally had two cells. This is further supported by the division on the cobbled floor, slightly to the north of the southern door, on the line of the present timber partition. To the north the floor comprises relatively large cobbles aligned east-west and forming an unusually robust floor surface, which is about 0.1m deep. The thickness of the floor may be related to the building’s original function. To the south there is a very rough earth and cobble floor.

The roof trusses and the corrugated iron roof are amongst the oldest surviving at Auchindrain. There is much graffiti on the trusses, especially at the northern end of the building, dating from between 1911-1916. The graffiti concentration and the better made floor found at the northern end of the building illustrates a clear functional distinction between this end of the building and the southern end. It is likely that the northern end of the building was used as the wool store and the southern end of the building was where the bull was housed.