West Langwell

NC60NE 61 6921 0871

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet xcvi) gives the name Reidhamhuil to this settlement at the SW edge of West Langwell, and depicts nine roofed structures scattered across an area of about 10ha of enclosed ground. The Name Book describes it as 'two small crofts situated at the western extremity of West Langwell; the dwelling houses are one story high, with suitable out offices, the whole are thatched and in middling repair'. The settlement is now unoccupied, the only roofed building being a derelict house (not shown on the 1st edition map) at NC 6912 0876.

Five of the structures depicted on the 1st edition map can be identified on the ground, along with a sixth which does not appear on that map (ROG95 493). Most of them are small outhouses or huts, measuring between 4.3m and 6.4m in length and between 1.8m and 4.1m in breadth within rubble walls, mostly turfed over, which generally stand no more than 0.4m high, though one hut, immediately behind the derelict house, stands 0.8m high. The only building larger than these (ROG95 496 at NC 6921 0871) is partly buried beneath a pile of rubble, but enough remains to show that it measures internally 16.5m in length by 3.9m in breadth, it is divided into two compartments and it has an outshot at the ESE end. This is likely to be one of the dwelling houses mentioned in the Name Book; the other was presumably demolished when the present (derelict) house was built.

(ROG95 492, 494-8)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB), 4 July 1995.

OS Name Book 1879.