St Kilda, Boreray

This bothy lies on the southern fringe of the main cluster of cleits on the island, and though appearing superficially similar to them in construction is of a rather different design. Built on a steep slope, it measures 4m in length from NE to SW by 3.2m in breadth overall, and the interior has been roughly levelled by cutting back into the slope on the NE and building up an artificial platform on the SW. Both the platform at the front and the cut at the back are integral to the wall of the structure, which measures about 1m in thickness at the entrance and rises externally to a roughly horizontal ledge 0.5m wide about 1.5m above the toe of the battered outer face on the SW. Corresponding with the lowest course of corbels forming the roof, this ledge was designed to secure the foot of a peat and turf capping, which, though no trace of it remains, would have risen at least 1.2m above this level. The well-built entrance is at the E corner, formed between a built jamb on the SW and the inner face of the interior on the NE, which has been projected outwards to meet the line of the outer face. An arc of revetment butted against the outer face here holds back the slope immediately in front of the doorway, which is 0.7m wide by 0.6m high and covered by a broad slab 1.37m long. The top of this slab is raised above the level of the turf ledge, but it was almost certainly intended to carry the capping of the roof across the entrance. Roughly sub-rectangular on plan, the interior measures 2.3m in length by 1.4m in breadth and the slabs forming the top of the corbelled roof stand 1.3m above the floor. An aumbrey 0.35m wide by 0.18m high and 0.35m deep is built into the NW wall 0.18m above the floor at the N corner.

(Mary Harman Boreray 47)

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH, IP) 16 July 2010