Skye, Erisco

NG47NW 3 414 753.

(Area: NG 414753) Erisco: shown as a townhip in 1662 (J Blaeu 1662) and 1824 (Information from W Johnson's map of Skye, 1824) but deserted by 1875 (OS 6"map, Isle of Skye, Inverness-shire, 1st ed.)

Erisco is the best example of a depopulated 'improvements' township in the Isle of Skye. It comprises some 8 ruined houses with byres and out-buildings, the majority of which survive to the wall-head and retain their internal sub-divisions. They vary between 40-60ft in length and about 15ft in width and are constructed of large drystone walling, the corners being but very slightly rounded. The houses of Erisco are placed in a line along the township enclosure wall at the head of the crofts which are regularly spaced and of about equal acreage. In and about the area are earlier type houses with lazy-bed cultivations, probably the remnants of the earlier township.

Visited by OS (A C) 25 April 1961; Visible on RAF air photographs CPE/Scot/UK/273: 3008-9.

A crofting township, comprising fourteen unroofed buildings, one enclosure, a field-system and a head-dyke is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch maps (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1878, sheet iv). Twenty unroofed buildings, one of which may be a row of cottages, and a short length of head-dyke are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1966).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 8 October 1996.