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Skye, Creag Na Laire
Building (Post Medieval), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval), Shieling Mound (Post Medieval)
Site Name Skye, Creag Na Laire
Classification Building (Post Medieval), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval), Shieling Mound (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 11045
Site Number NG32SE 5
NGR NG 396 211
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11045
- Council Highland
- Parish Bracadale
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
Field Visit (7 June 1961)
NG32SE 5 396 211.
NG 396 211 700m NE of Bealachna h-airidh Mhurain upon a terrace on the SE slopes of Truagh Mheall, beneath a line of crags approx. 750 feet OD, is a group of about 14 ruined shielings. They are of the single- and twin-cell types, constructed of dry stone walling. Two of the better preserved mounds contain clusters of three-twin-cell shielings, others show little more than circular depressions in the top of the mound. (Visible on RAF air photographs CPE/Scot/UK/274: 3074-5)
Visited by OS (A S P) 7 June 1961
Field Visit (1 November 2016)
The remains of at least twelve shieling huts, one mound and a larger rectangular building are spread over a distance of 250m across the lower slopes of Creag na Laire. The largest hut (NG 39367 21068) lies at the western edge of the group and is one of three huts and a mound that are separated from the main cluster of sites. The hut contains two compartments, the larger one (on the SE) measuring 2.7m in diameter within grass-grown stone walls 1.5m thick and 0.5m high, and there is an E-facing entrance. The smaller compartment on the NW measures only 1.2m in internal diameter and is set at a slightly higher level.
The main concentration of nine huts and a building includes four that each contains two compartments. The best preserved of these (NG 39557 21125), which stands adjacent to the burn that runs through the site from NW to SE, contains an oval compartment on the E which measures 2.8m from NE to SW by 1.8m transversely within a wall reduced to a thick grass-grown bank. Adjoining it on the W is a smaller compartment (about 1.2m in diameter) which is set at a slightly higher level. Another two-compartmented hut lies some 27m to the NE and two more lie next to one another some 33m downstream. One of these (NG 39597 21103) has been rebuilt as an enclosure.
A single rectangular building of blackhouse type stands at the SE edge of the group (NG 39631 21083). Set end-on into the slope, it measures 8.1m from NW to SE by 3.5m transversely within drystone walls up to 1.5m in thickness and 1m in height. There is a central entrance in the SW wall, and the interior contains two later pens. A small hut stands on the opposite side of the burn 10m SW of the building. Evidence for extensive peat-cutting can be seen to the SE and SW of the shieling group.
Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GFG, MM) 1 November 2016.
