Geograph - photograph every grid square

The structure is what remains of a building of dry-stone construction, measuring approximately 6 metres to a side. It is in poor condition; it was already a ruin by the time the first-edition OS map was surveyed in c.1861. Part of the southeastern wall remains upright, a little over 2 metres high, and about 75cm thick. An opening, presumably a window, though it would not have been glazed, can be seen in that wall. Of the other three walls, only low courses or foundations remain. See Link (at Canmore) for archaeological details.

A passage in John Guthrie Smith's 1896 book "Strathendrick and its Inhabitants from Early Times" may be relevant: there, the author recounts that, when James MacNair bought Aucheneck and Finnich-Tennant in 1828, "the greater part of his estate was a bleak, muirish place with a few trees only standing around the old steadings and cottages and in the glen. The old steading of Aucheneck was there, where the present offices now stand, and so, a little to the east, was the old house of Wester Finnick ... and down in the glen was the old disused mill of Aucheneck, the walls entire but roofless". Regarding that disused mill, the author adds, in a footnote, that "the last gable fell about 30 years ago".

("The present offices" of Smith's day were located at NS48508356, where some of the buildings of present-day Aucheneck Farm now stand. His "Wester Finnick" probably corresponds to the vicinity of modern High Finnich. Nearby NS4883 : Aucheneck House was built for the same James MacNair, although a later owner would make additions to the building.)