RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey, Waternish, Skye
Date June 1990 - November 1990
Event ID 550858
Category Project
Type Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/550858
The Afforestable Land Survey team of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland carried out an archaeological field survey of Waternish, Skye, between June and November 1990. The survey-area comprised the whole of the peninsula as far south as the Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference northing NG50, which roughly corresponds with the public road from Dunvegan to Edinbane (A850), and includes the subsidiary peninsula of Greshornish, giving a total area of some 93 square kilometres.
A preliminary analysis of the available vertical aerial photographs of the Waternish peninsula revealed a nearly continuous landscape of abandoned townships, cultivation ridges, fields, and farm boundaries, extending from Bay in the south to Unish Point in the north, a distance of some 15km. The extent of these remains posed considerable mapping and surveying problems, and, because of the quality of the surviving archaeology, 1:2,500 was selected as the most appropriate recording scale for much of the work. This was achieved using a combination of Electronic Distance Measurer (EDM) survey and the transcription of detail from RAF vertical air photographs. In all, some 45 square kilometres were mapped in this way; the remainder of the peninsula, in which the archaeological sites are more thinly spread, was mapped at 1:10,000 . Aerial photographs were also used for mapping in areas that had subsequently been afforested, but these areas were not ground-checked (compare figs 1 and 2); similarly, the islands of Mingay and Isay were transcribed, but, for logistical reasons, were not visited. Unlike earlier RCAHMS surveys, all unroofed or partially unroofed structures were recorded, including the many early croft houses that had been in occupation at the time of the 1st or 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch maps (1880 and 1904). In order to cope with the amount of data gathered in the field as a result of recording such a large number of buildings and huts, a form was devised for logging the preliminary notes; later, these were computerised as a database. Together, the database and the 1:2,500 and 1:10,000 maps form the archive of the survey, and from these the 385 entries in the National Monuments Record of Scotland have been derived. Some 1500 separate structures were recorded, 1482 of which formed individual entries in the database.
The report (RCAHMS 1993) was written by Dr Piers J Dixon and edited by Mr Jack B Stevenson and Mr Gordon S Maxwell. It was based upon fieldwork carried out by Messrs Dave C Cowley, Piers J Dixon, Strat P Halliday, J N Graham Ritchie and survey by Mrs Jane Green, Mr Ian G Parker, Miss Heather L Graham and Miss Angela R Wardell. The photographs were taken by Geoffrey B Quick and the layout was prepared by John N Stevenson. Much local assistance was provided by Mr Roger Miket (Skye and Lochalsh District Museums Service) and by the Clerks of the Commons of the various townships of Waternish.
RCAHMS 1993 (cf. Annual Reviews 1991-1993)
Project Code: WAT90
Area: 86km2
Structures database: MS731/2 (manuscript), DX001420 (database)
Linework: non-digital
