Coire Bhorradail

NM65SW 3 628 501.

NM 628 501. Shielings, Coire Bhorradail: The remains of about fifty shieling-huts lie at the foot of Coire Bhorradail, 3.5km NNE of Fiunary, where a patch of fairly level ground situated at a height of about 280m OD forms a gathering-point for numerous tributaries of the Abhainn Shalachain. The huts, now represented either by turf or dry-stone footings, vary a good deal in size and shape; typical examples are shown on plan, which delineates a representative portion of the site. The smaller huts are generally circular on plan, having an average diameter of about 5m over walls some 1.2m in thickness; they appear to have been constructed mainly of turf. Most of them are single-chambered, but a few contain two chambers. The stone-walled huts, on the other hand, are sub-rectangular on plan and measure up to 6.7m by 4.9m over walls 1.2m in thickness. Some of them have opposed doorways situated towards one end, and were probably sub-divided into two apartments of unequal size, the smaller of which may have formed a sleeping-place. These stone-walled huts are probably of later date than the turf-walled ones, which in some cases underlie them.

The site lies astride the boundary of two neighbouring farms, Salachan and Fiunary, and probably owes its unusually large size to the fact that it was shared by tenants of both properties. The shieling probably remained in summer use until about the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries (Gaskell 1968, 17-18, 150, 152, 169).

RCAHMS 1980, visited July 1972.