General oblique aerial view looking across Sandavore farmsteading towards An Sgurr fort, taken from the ENE.

Description General oblique aerial view looking across Sandavore farmsteading towards An Sgurr fort, taken from the ENE.

Date 10/4/2003

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number E 35383 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 875754, SC 1699484

Scope and Content Sandavore Farmsteading from the north-east, Eigg, Small Isles, Highland The island of Eigg is one of the Small Isles along with Canna, Rum and Muck. It lies 16km off the west coast of Scotland and has been inhabited since at least Neolithic times (c.4000-2500 BC). Eigg was bought in 1997 by its residents in conjunction with the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Highland Council. This shows the landscape around the Sandavore farmsteading (bottom left), with the peak of An Sgurr in the distance (top right). 19th century 'improved' fields overlay traces of much earlier farming, indicated by the ridges left by the runrig farming method, which helped to improve drainage and soil temperature. An Sgurr was an obvious choice for early people to build fortifications, and remains of a large fort dating from c.800 BC-500 AD have been found on the summit. The fort was defended on three sides by 150m high sheer cliffs of pitchstone and on the west by man-made defensive walls about 80m long. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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