Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Kildrummy Souterrain [I]

Muirs of Kildrummy, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire.

Souterrain.

This souterrain is situated under a small stand of trees 240m W of Muirs of Kildrummy steading. The main part of the passage is orientated E and W, but at the W end it turns at right-angles onto the narrow entrance. The passage measures about 16m in length and ranges in width from 1.3m at the W end to 1.9m at the E end. Most of the passage retains its original roofing of large slabs, but this has been removed over a distance of 2.4m from the E end and 1.5m at the W end. The walls of the souterrain are up to 1.7m high and have been constructed primarily of angular random masonry on a basal course of large irregular boulders. The upper courses of the masonry are corbelled and the narrowing in the breadth towards the roof is most obvious at the E end, where it reduces from 1.9m to 1.5m.

At the entrance a set of five steps, which may be a comparatively modern insertion, descends through a narrow passage, which measures between 0.5m and 0.7m in breadth and is no more than 0.9m in height where it joins the end of the main chamber. At least two further steps are probably buried beneath soil that has washed or fallen into the end of the passage.

At the opposite end of the main passage, in the S wall 1m from the E end, and 0.7m from the floor, there is an entrance to a secondary chamber, which is similar in terms of its location and construction to that recorded at Glenkindie [database entry 7256]. The entrance measures 0.65m in width and 0.6m in height. The secondary chamber has largely been in-filled, but at least three roofing slabs can be seen over a distance of 1m.

Alternative Names: None recorded.