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North Uist, Balmartin
Croft (Period Unassigned), Farmstead (Period Unassigned)
Site Name North Uist, Balmartin
Classification Croft (Period Unassigned), Farmstead (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Baile Mhartainn
Canmore ID 318344
Site Number NF77SW 57.04
NGR NF 72518 73438
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/318344
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
Field Visit (4 June 2012)
This croft is situated immediately S of the loan which ran between the third and fourth crofts from the N end of Balmartin township, linking the machair on the W with the moorland on the E. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire – Hebrides 1881, Sheet XXIX) depicts at least four buildings and an enclosure here; the 2nd edition of the map shows the same disposition of buildings though the N end of the enclosure had been removed by this time.
NF 72558 73517. The most northerly building in the group is a thick-walled, square-ended structure with walls surviving to a height of 1.9m. There is a central entrance and flanking windows in the E side and three small windows in the W. There is a fireplace in both end-walls, that on the N having a stone lintel, that on the S a wooden one.
NF 72572 73517. Immediately to the E are the lower courses (0.6m high) of as roughly square structure that has been heavily robbed on the SW.
NF 72565 73497. Immediately SE of the first structure is another thick-walled and square-ended building, this one containing three compartments, each with an entrance on the E and a window on the W. The walls stand to a height of 2m and there is a fireplace with a stone lintel in the S end. The compartments have been linked by doorways at the W end of the thick partition walls, though that between the central and southern compartments has been blocked. This building evidently superseded an earlier building, also thick-walled and square-ended with an entrance also in its E side, the remains of which stand adjacent to the E, its walls barely rising more than 1m in height and then only towards the SE corner.
NF 72552 73464. The southernmost building in the group stands at the W end of a rectangular stone-walled enclosure that originally extended as far N as the last building described. The structure has been heavily robbed but its thick walls still stand up to 1m in height. The building is round-ended on the N and square-ended on the S, with opposing entrances midway along the E and W sides, the former, leading into the enclosure, blocked.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, RT) 4 June 2012.
