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Field Visit
Date 7 August 1967
Event ID 879400
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/879400
That the pre-1830 settlements probably existed in the area described by the foregoing authorities to the north of the present village, is not disputed; but three major points arise out of this:
(1) Only three or four possible medieval or 'beehive' type dwellings were noted (in addition to Calum Mor House - NF19NW 2), and these have been re-used/re-built as cleits.
(2) No early black-house structure of Martin & Macaulay's description seems to survive - and this village may just have been superseded, in situ, by the 1834 'improved black-houses'.
(3) The possibility of hut circles existing near Tobar Childa, together with a field-stystem, indicates a pre- historic settlement (see NF09NE 9).
The probable head-dyke (mainly a baulk) containing the 17/18th centuries field plots, was also located running erratically from the present wall near the site of Tobar a' Chleirich at a distance of c.15-20m from the wall, to a point above Tobar Childa at a distance of c.100m where the baulk (2-3m high) changes to a turf-covered boulder wall no more than 0.2m high. It is last seen turning southwards towards the modern wall some 200m W of Tobar Childa. No traces of cultivation lie outside this bank (excepting the enclosures on An Lag); but the plots exist for a short way inside the 1830 wall, gradually being superseded by the field strip system of that and later date.
The natural embankment N of the E end of the village, seems to erratic and not convincing enough to be Macaulay's "causeway" of the old village.
Contrary to Williamson's suggestion that the cleits near Tobar Childa were originally dwellings, only about three of these, and obviously reconstructed on earlier foundations, can be said to possibly agree with this theory - the narrowness of the internal area, and the special 'open' construction of the walls, is not conductive to habitation. Visited by OS (J L D) 7 August 1967.
