Skye, Brae Stein

NG25NE 15 265 566.

The crofting township of Brae Stein was carved out of the farm of Stein, which is first documented in 1683 when it was let to three tenants for 64 merks (R C MacLeod 1928, Vol I). A report to the British Fisheries Society in 1788 found that there were eight married couples out of a population of 35 at Stein in 1788 (SRO GD 9/3 Minutes of the British Fisheries Society 1786-88, 273). The farm was sold to the British Fisheries Society in 1790 (J Dunlop 1978). In 1798 a report to the Society reported that there were 23 settlers each with a house and offices (60 by 80 feet), half an acre of cultivated land, five acres of uncultivated and summer grazing for two cows at a total rental of $18 19s. A fishing village and pier were erected by the Society under the name Lochbay, but the venture proved a failure, since the quality of the land was sufficient to support the tenants by agriculture alone, and in 1837 Lochbay was sold to Macdonald of Skeabost (J Dunlop 1978). A map of the farm drawn up in 1790 for the Society by Thomas Telford shows the old fermtoun of Stein as an irregular cluster of nine houses and three enclosures (Dunlop 1978 Plate IV) immediately to the N of the proposed fishing village. No trace of this settlement was found. The crofting township of Stein includes the following within its boundaries: five abandoned farmsteads of the crofts of Brae Stein, of which one was too reduced to record; an isolated building; a group of shieling-huts; a hut-circle; a sub-peat dyke; a field-system and areas of cultivation ridges and several boundary banks.

15.01 NG 2682 5683 Hut-circle (731)

15.02 NG 2700 5689 Stein Burn, Shieling-huts (727-730)

15.03 NG 2673 5658 Brae Stein, Building (734)

15.04 NG 2659 5669 Brae Stein, Building (735)

15.05 NG 2656 5674 Brae Stein, Farmstead (736, 738)

15.06 NG 2653 5678 Brae Stein, Building (737)

15.07 NG 2685 5697 Shieling-hut (732)

15.08 NG 2667 5698 Building (733)

15.09 NG 268 569 Sub-peat dyke

15.10 NG 267 567 Cultivation remains

15.11 NG 270 568 Boundary Banks

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 28 November 1990.

A crofting township, comprising thirteen roofed buildings and one unroofed building is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1880, sheet xv). Nine roofed, two partially roofed and two unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1968).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 15 October 1996.