Auchindrain for Argyll

The Cart Shed (Building F)

To the left of the Cottar’s House is a cart shed (Building F). The cart shed is built into the retaining wall of a raised kailyard, which was a walled garden where cabbage and potatoes were grown. The eastern wall of the cart shed forms the return of the kailyard wall, which was rebuilt around this structure. At the southern end of the western wall, which projects beyond the kailyard wall, are two alchoves constructed within the wall thickness. These were most probably used as keeping holes during the period when the cart shed was used as a communal area where the Township women did their washing.

The Cottar’s House (Building G)

The Cottar’s House was completely ruinous in 1963. When excavated it became apparent that it used to be a house comprising two rooms, each with a separate entrance. The building was rebuilt in the 1980s, above the foundation course, which comprises some relatively large boulders. The construction style differs from that of the other Township buildings in that it is more randomly coursed with small stones infilling between the larger irregular stones. There is a rough cobbled floor at the eastern end of the building. It has been suggested that this end was originally a byre. The floor is now too rough for animals to walk on, but originally it would have been filled with earth and dung to produce a smooth and level surface. There is an area of slightly raised cobbling opposite the western doorway, butting up against the northern long-wall and approximately the same size as the doorway. This feature comprises a mosaic of cobbles. Its function is unclear, but it may have formed a level surface for an internal fixture, possibly a bed.

Although the building was constructed with the cruck bases independent of the walls, it is likely that the original crucks were recessed within the wall-thickness, as observed in all other cases at Auchindrain. There is a smoke hole towards the western end of the roof, which was reconstructed based on the location of a hearth-stone that was found in the western end of the building.

The building was reconstructed in order to illustrate the basic structure of the poorer Township houses. It is called the Cottar’s House after the landless labourers who, in return for their labour in the Township, were allowed to live at Auchindrain in buildings like this one.