Skye, Bioda Buidhe

Vertical aerial photography shows that the end of a broad natural gully on the north flank of Bioda Buidhe has been blocked by a wall. The gully runs from NW to SE, traversing undulating peaty moorland before ending on the edge of a very steep rocky escarpment, where a wall, which incorporates lengths of natural rock outcrops, spans the gully and marks the transition between peaty heather moorland and better, lower-lying, pasture. The wall takes the form of a grass-grown rubble bank up to 6m in thickness and 1m in height with a hollow running down its spine that probably indicates that it once supported a timber fence. On the NE side of the gully (NG 44122 67086) the wall extends SW then S from the foot of a cliff-face for a distance of about 57m, where it runs on to the side of a grass-grown knoll (NG 44099 67014). It then springs off the W side of the knoll and runs for a distance of 54m W, terminating at the foot of a cliff-face (NG 44041 67005). This cliff-face extends S and then SW for a distance of about 50m before the wall is again picked up, extending some 72m to the SW where it terminates on the foot of yet another cliff-face (NG 43958 66914). The total length of the feature across the mouth of the gully is therefore about 270m. The wall is not depicted on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Invernes-shire (isle of Skye) 1879, Sheet VII).

Information from HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 21 November 2016.