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Cracknie Souterrain

Cracknie, near Tongue, Sutherland.

Souterrain, well-preserved.

The entrance is marked by a small hollow and a number of large stones, including one fallen cap stone. The full length of the souterrain is 13.2m and it measures about 1.3m in height and about 0.8m in width. The souterrain is curved on plan - as is usual for such sites - with a distinct sub-circular chamber at its end. The walls are carefully built without mortar and it is roofed with large slabs overlapping each other.

An almost intact earth-house whose entrance, on the top of a hillock, is an aperture about 2ft square beneath a slab. The passage slopes downward, gradually growing wider and higher, and some 20ft from the entrance is about 3ft wide and from 4ft 6ins to 4ft 10ins high. At 32ft inwards, its width is reduced to 2ft by a rebate on the right side; thereafter it gradually widens and curving round to the right terminates in a pear-shaped expansion about 6ft wide and 4ft 4ins high. The extreme length of the earth-house is 42ft. A few flags lying displaced outside the entrance suggest that it was longer. The sides are carefully built without mortar and it is roofed with slabs overlapping each other; the walls throughout are in perfect condition. [Canmore]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: A 3D survey of the souterrain at Cracknie, near Tongue, was carried out on 21 February 2012 using laser scanning.