Note
Date 22 December 1998
Event ID 625521
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/625521
This area is divided from NG20SE 83.01 by a wall that cuts across a narrow neck of ground to the NE of Suileabhaig (from NG 2691 0438 to NG 2806 0438). It takes in almost the entire E half of Sanday, and, with the exception of an area of arable ground to the E of Camas Stianabhaig, it forms the largest area of pasture belonging to the ?Lower Island? farm, as annotated on the estate map of 1805. No buildings or structures are depicted at this end of the island on the estate map, nor on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, 1881, sheet lx).
The area of arable ground shown on the estate map takes in the E side of the bay at Camas Stianabhaig, and is defined by the coastline on the NE and NW and by rocky crags on the SE and SW. Traces of lazy-beds can still be seen within this area, but are not as extensive as the map suggests. Several stretches of walls can still be followed linking up the rocky crags and apparently enclosing the area shown on the estate map. By 1881, however, it had returned to pasture, and is shown as unimproved ground on the 1st edition map. Three huts, four narrow rectangular structures and a grass-grown mound can also be seen within this area (for which, see NG20SE 13 and NG20SE 30), but may well belong to an earlier phase of land-use.
Elsewhere across this end of Sanday, a handful of small plots of lazy-beds can also be seen, and while only one, above the cliffs at Creag nam Faoileann, comprises more than a few lazy-beds, all are impossible to date. Equally difficult to date are the fragments of walls linking outcrops and cutting across gullies at various points between Suileabhaig and the cleft from Camas Stianabhaig to the cliffs overlooking Dun Beag. In one case, however, one of a cluster of huts (NG20SE 05) appears to overlie the line of a ruinous wall, which, therefore, is of relatively date. This end of Sanday has never been intensively cultivated, and the clusters of huts and stretches of ruinous field-walls that survive suggest the ground was only ever used sporadically or on a seasonal basis.
Information from RCAHMS (ARG), 22 December 1998.
