BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



flags, with sandstone quoins. The walls, some 

 thirty inches thick, are twenty-five feet long 

 by eighteen feet six inches broad, and twenty- 

 two feet high. There is a doorway with a bead- 

 and-hollow moulding in the western wall, and 

 another at a higher level on the opposite side. 

 On a stone in the south wall the date "1677" 

 is carved in relief 



The building is two-storied. The lower 

 chamber is vaulted, the vaulting rising from a 

 six-inch ledge two feet above the level of the 

 floor. This was quite clearly a burial-vault; 

 while in the chamber above are stone nest- 

 holes for pigeons. This curious combination is 

 quite possibly unique. 



At Stenster House, near Bower, is a some- 

 whatdilapidateddovecote.seventeen feet three 

 inches square,withaspanroof and crow-stepped 

 gable-walls. The walls, three feet thick, are 

 twenty-six feet high to the roof ridge; the nests 

 of stone. 



Other Caithness examples include abeehive- 

 shaped building in the garden of Dale House, 

 nearHalkirk,withthreestring-courses,aheight 

 of seventeen feet, andadiameterof sixteen; and 

 276 



