Kiltyrie

NN63NW 271 6300 3700

The present landscape and field pattern at Kiltyrie is largely a creation of agricultural improvement and change from the late 18th century onwards, though elements of an earlier field system survive.

Kiltyrie was part of the Crown lands of Discher in the fifteenth century, but appears to have been granted to the Campbells of Glenorchy (forebears of the Campbells of Breadalbane) around the middle of the following century (Harrison 2003, 11). John Farquharson's 1769 Survey of the North Side of Loch Tay (National Archives of Scotland, RHP 973/1, Plan 6) shows Kiltyrie as two farms (Wester and Easter Kiltyrie) and depicts a landscape of small enclosed fields of irregular plan, with a scattering of small woodland plantations. A head-dyke at about 280m OD defines the upper limit of the arable ground, and there is a second head-dyke farther up the hill, at approximately 380m OD, which is annotated 'new head dyke' on Farquharson's 1772 general plan of the lochside (NAS RHP 569). The ground between the two dykes is described as grassland, and may reflect a mid-18th century expansion of the cattle trade (Boyle 2003, 18). The only indication of improvement at this stage is the straight dyke running down the eastern march, from the road (now the A827) and the lochside.

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1867, sheets lxviii and lxix) shows a landscape transformed by improvement, the fields recast as rectilinear enclosures, and most of these boundaries survive today. In the lower part of the farm, between the lochside and the A827 road, the 1769 boundaries have now been almost entirely eradicated, with the important exception of the eastern march dyke. Across this part of the farm there is an extensive area of open broadleaf woodland. Much of this is shown on the 1st edition OS maps, but it may be much older. The Book of Reference that accompanies Farquharson's survey notes that in both Wester and Easter Kiltyrie there are 'many places . . . which seem to have been sometime in wood and if enclosed would yet spring up' (NAS RHP 973/2); Farquharson doesn't map these trees, but it may be that he has recorded an area of ancient wood-pasture that has survived as the open woodland of today.

Rather more survives of the 1769 landscape in the upper part of the farm, between the road and the lower head-dyke (Boyle 2009, 52). Here, many of the pre-improvement field boundaries survive as low earthen banks, overlain by the improvers' straight boundary dykes. Substantial areas of rig survive here (best seen on aerial photographs or in low light), though these may be no older than the early 19th century. Finally, the lower head-dyke, an earthen bank, can be traced only intermittently along the course identified by Farquharson, while the 'new' head dyke, which is faced with stone, is well-preserved. Neither of these is maintained as a boundary; they have been succeeded by a stone dyke, likely to have been built around 1800, which runs across the hillside midway between the two.

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) May 2000

S Boyle 2003, 2009; J Harrison 2003 (= RCAHMS MS 1155/6)