South Uist, Kyles Stuley

NF82SW 4 centred on 8211 2358

A township comprising one unroofed, two roofed buildings and two enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Hebrides, South Uist 1881, sheet lvi). Six unroofed buildings and four enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1970).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 21 May 1997

The farmstead of Caolas Stulaigh is situated on the N side of a minor burn, and at the edge of series of formerly cultivated lazy beds, only 10m from the shore below. It now comprises a sheep fank, which incorporates the remains of a large blackhouse, two dwellings, two byres, and a storehouse. There are two fish traps in the near vicinity, recorded as NF82SW 11 and NF82SW 12 .

The drystone fank measures about 20m from N to S by 25m transversely overall, and incorporates a large blackhouse in the SW of three compartments. This blackhouse (A) is set into the slope at the W and incorporates some very large boulders; it measures 12m from NNE to SSW by 4.3m transversly within drystone walls 0.8m in thickness and 1.5m in height. The entrance in the northern end of the ESE wall probably replaces an earlier one near the centre.

Immediately to the SW of this blackhouse, a second and later building (B) measures 8m from N to S by 4.1m transversely within drystone walls 0.8m in thickness and up to 1.2m in height. The slope has been cut back to the N of the building to form a basic soakway. The E wall of this building, where the doorway must have stood, has been robbed for stone to construct a well-preserved hut within its N end. A fireplace in the N wall may be a later feature. Just 2m to the NW of this building, there is a small depression lined with stone, about 3m in internal diameter. This may be the footings of hut, a pen, or possibly a clamp.

About 20m to the W of the sheep fank, there is a small byre (C) that measures 4.2m from E to W by 3.7m transversely with drystone walls 0.7m in thickness and up to 1.5m in height. There is an entrance in the W wall, out from which a drain runs.

A fourth building (D), probably a dwelling, stands 9m to the W of the byre. Rectangular with rounded external corners, it measures 7.5m from NE to SW by 4.2m transversely within drystone walls up to 0.8m in thickness and 1.4m in height. There is an entrance in the centre of the SE wall, flanked by window openings, and a fireplace in the NE wall. Immediately to the SW of this building, a fifth building (E), possibly a byre, measures 3.8m square within walls of the same character. Buildings D and E appear to overlie and incorporate parts of a longer building that stood on the same site.

A potato store (F) is detached from the group of buildings, over 55m S of the fank. It measures 5m from NW to SE by 3.8m transversely within drystone walls 0.8m in thickness and 1m in height, and there is an entrance in the NE wall.

The township is set within a landscape of small plots of hand dug cultivations strips (known as lazy beds), the most detached of which is 480m to the NW. Near to the buildings, there are a series of fields and enclosures with open drains, enclosed by turf banks. A trackway leads from the centre of the group to the SW.

Bald’s generalised map of South Uist, dated to c1825, shows two roofed buildings at ‘Kules Stuley’, and indicates that the settlement stood at the N boundary of the township of Askernish. By 1880, there were two roofed buildings (D and E) one unroofed building (A), part of the fank, and some of the turf enclosures shown on the 1st edition of the 6-inch OS map (Inverness-shire (Hebrides), Sheet LVI, 1880). The 2nd edition, revised in 1901, shows buildings D and E as one roofed range, and depicts building B as a roofed T-plan structure for which there is little evidence. The well shown on both OS maps is only detectable as a boggy area just SE of building B.

The settlement may have functioned as a mixed-economy township of at least two tenants into the 19th century, when it appears to have become a small farmstead focussed on sheep. In its latest phase a small fisherman’s bothy was constructed, and, in very recent times, fencers used the fank as shelter for their timber huts.

During the census of 1881, ‘Kylestally’ was occupied by Angus McFarlane, a shepherd aged 55 from Skye, his wife Ann, their son Donald, a fisherman aged 24, their three daughters Catherine, Margaret and Mary, and their son-in-law Donald McPhee, a fisherman aged 26. By 1901, there were two occupied houses (presumably buildings D and E), one each for the family of Angus, and his son Donald, by then the shepherd. The son and his family were still there in 1911.

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH, GFG, KG) 27 July 2012.

RCAHMS undertook a measured survey of the township at Caolas Stulaigh on 26-28 June 2012. A 1:500 plan was created using a Wild self-reducing alidade and plane-table.