Field Visit

Date July 1972

Event ID 1083611

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1083611

This township is situated on the SE slopes of Ben Hiant at a height of between 100m and 150m OD. The site measures about 5.7 ha (14 acres) in extent, and comprises a tract of gently sloping ground bordering the confluence of a number of minor tributaries of an unnamed burn which flows SE to enter the mouth of Loch Sunart about 1km W of Camas nan Geall.

The buildings, some three dozen in number, lie scattered in small groups, taking advantage of such areas of comparatively dry ground as may be found. Within these groups a number of buildings can tentatively be identified as dwelling-houses, and others as barns and byres, while the adjacent enclosures, which in many cases show traces of lazy-beds, were presumably kail-yards... Nearly all the surviving buildings are of dry-stone construction, their walls remaining to a height of between 1m and 2m; most are oblong on plan with rounded corners. All the buildings appear to have been cruck-framed and hip-roofed, the hips frequently being supported by crucks placed centrally in the end-walls...The largest buildings... measure up to 12m by 6m over all... The patches of arable ground round the township show extensive traces of rig-cultivation.

Bourblaige formed part of the Ardnamurchan estates of the Riddell family, and the township is depicted on an estate-map prepared by William Bald for Sir James Riddell in 1806. A contemporary report gives the total extent of the property as 553 acres (224 ha), of which 93 acres (38 ha) were arable and the remainder moor and pasture, and goes on to describe it as 'a very pleasant sheep farm, but oppres'd with too many tenants'. By 1829, however, the township had been combined with the neighbouring property of Tornamoany to form one large grazing-farm held by a single tenant. It seems likely, therefore, that the majority of buildings visible today were abandoned shortly before this date.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972

[a full illustrated description is provided in RCAHMS 1980, No. 364]

Endnote:

NAS, RHP 72, 'Survey of the lands of Ardnamurchan and Sunart by William Bald, 1806-7'; AF 49/2A, 'Descriptive survey and valuation of estate of Ardnamurchan and Sunart, 1807'; AF 49/3, 'Report by Thomas Anderson, Strontian, on the farms of the barony of Ardnamurchan and Sunart, 1829'. Cf. also Scottish Studies, v (1961), 112-17.