Skye, Kraiknish

A township, comprising four roofed and six unroofed buildings, three of which are long buildings, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1881, sheet xliii). Three roofed, thirteen unroofed buildings, two enclosures and a field are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1965).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 12 November 1996.

For specific structures within the township, see NG32SE 9.1 to NG32SE 9.12

The township of Kraiknish appears in rent rolls of the 17th and 18th centuries (Macleod 1938, 152; 1939, 79). None of the structures recorded can be confidently attributed to the 17th century but some at least may be 18th century, in particular the tackman’s house (NG32SE 9.11) and some of the individual structures subsequently subsumed by cultivation (NG32SE 9.1; NG32SE 39). There is nothing to suggest that the nucleated township (NG32SE 9.10) is earlier than 18th century date, while some of the individual farmsteads and the row of crofts can almost certainly be dated to the late 18th or early 19th century. While evidence given to the Napier Commission suggests that the tenants were apparently cleared c1810 there is no doubt that one, if not two, of the lime built shepherd’s houses were constructed at a later date (NG32SE 9.4; NG32SE 9.8; Napier Commission, Bracadale, John McCaskill, 18 May 1883).

By 1877, when the survey for the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map was undertaken, the focus of settlement had already moved towards the shore and only four buildings were depicted roofed. At this time about 6.5 hectares were enclosed for use by the shepherd, but evidence for earlier cultivation and enclosure extends over some 46 hectares. Extensive areas of relict lazy-beds cover most of the outer and upper slopes within a series of plots defined by the head-dyke, or individual enclosing walls. The slope below the row of croft houses has been delineated into a series of narrow plots (averaging 7m across), which run from the inner head-dyke to the shore, and these areas have evidently been turned over by hand in smaller plots that have left no trace. Some other areas of the infield have been subject to modern cultivation, although contemporary efforts are centred in the field immediately W of the tacksman’s house.

The shepherd’s house at Kraiknish was finally abandoned by 1948, and an agricultural store (at NG 3702 2356) was constructed between the 1947 and 1957 editions of the OS 1-inch map (Sheet 34 (Cuillins, Rhum and Canna) 1947; Sheet 33 (Rhum and Part of Skye) 1957).

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GFG) and Forestry Commission (MR) 31 August 2016.