Cruck Framed Barn, Greenfield Farm, Kilmonivaig

Possibly dating from the later to late-18th century, Greenfield barn is a single-storey, cruck-framed barn with a red corrugated iron roof and three rooflights. Its walls are battered with a boulder base and constructed in random, rubble stone. The walls are harled and have triangular vents in the east and west elevations. There is a single entrance opening in the west elevation and a larger opening with a two-leaf, timber door in the east elevation.

Internally, the barn has jointed and pegged crucks set into the wall and ending above ground. Five cruck blades support a ridge pole and trunk purlins (possibly made out of birch, larch or Scots pine). Replacement timber planks support the cruck framework in places. A large entrance opening with ledged, braced doors in the north elevation lead into the adjoining Nissen hut. There are two parallel byres to the east of the cruck-framed barn (one slated and the other in a similar Nissen hut-style) dating from the 20th century.

Historical background

Greenfield was a substantial township in the 18th century, which was largely, but not completely, abandoned in the 1790s and re-occupied as an agricultural settlement in the 1840s-1850s (Highland Historic Environment Record, MHG29829). Greenfield is shown on an estate map of 1840, to the east of the Greenfield Burn, a tributary of Loch Garry.

Greenfield was a tenanted farm on the Glengarry estate. The estate was historically owned by the MacDonnells of Glengarry and was sold to the Marquis of Huntly in 1836. In 1860 the Glengarry estate was bought by Edward Ellice MP and added to his Highland sporting estate portfolio. The farm at Greenfield was a sheep farm and raised the Cheviot breed with the capacity for a supplementary stock of cattle. The farm included meadow land and arable land (Inverness Courier, 12 May 1870). Newspaper advertisements from the 1870s and 1880s indicate that Greenfield Farm was let as one holding together with the neighbouring Garrygualach Farm to the west.