Cochno Hill

Seasonal settlement occupied while grazing cattle on upland pastures for a period of 8-12 weeks in the summer. Three sheiling huts had already been identified at this site, the 2008 survey has identified a total of nine sheiling huts. This site has not been recorded in detail and an EDM survey is recommended for a full site plan. The site lies on the sheltered NE side of the hill in a small valley. It is directly associated with Sites 17, 18, 18a, 18b and 19 and forms part of the wider agricultural use of the landscape represented by the field systems on the lower southern slopes of the hill.

Late Medieval - Post Medieval in date.

Site 16a NS 47926 75262 308m sheiling hut.

Site 16b NS 47932 75260 310m sheiling hut.

Site 16c NS 47967 75227 310m sheiling hut.

Site 16d NS 47954 75208 - NS 47945 75219 317m

A wall c 10m long constructed of single large boulders 1m to 1.3m wide running NWSE at 303° between two rocky knolls at the top of the slope.

Site 16e NS 47952 75195 312m sheiling hut A sub rectangular turf covered foundation with a depression in the middle measuring c. 10m x 5m, aligned NNW-SSE at 342°. The lines of the walls stand to 0.5m and are 1.2m to 1.3m wide. Excellent views to the S, SE and E.

Site 16f NS 47982 75220 304m possible sheiling hut A sub circular mound 3.4m x 3.4m and standing up to 0.5m high represents the probable foundations of a sheiling hut although excavation would be required to

confirm this. Looks more convincing when viewed from above.

Site 16g NS 47975 75203 307m sheiling hut Remains of a stone and turf sheiling hut measuring 4.30m N-S x 4.10m E-W and standing to 0.60m high on the NE facing slope. The walls are 0.8m thick.

Site 16h NS 47976 75219 - NS 47985 75202 307m bank A stone and turf dyke c.15m long and 1.2m wide running along the N side of a burn,

aligned NNW-SSE at 115°. This bank may have acted as a flood defence against the burn in spate.

Site 16i NS 47998 75217 302m possible sheiling hut A sub circular hummock measuring between 4.4m and 4.8m diameter and standing to

0.5m high, some stone is visible. Like Site 16f excavation would be required to confirm this identification but given the location of these sites it is highly probably that these remains are sheiling huts, possibly older ones that 16a, 16b and 16c.

Site 16j NS 47990 75237 300m sheiling hut

A ring of stones measuring 2.8m E-W x 3.6m N-S standing no more than 0.2m. Only five stones are visible on the surface but probing indicated a sub circular foundation, probably the remains of an earlier sheiling hut.

Site 16k NS 47986 75253 306m mound (probable sheiling hut)

A poorly defined turf and stone mound with a central depression measuring 7.4m N-S x 6.3m E-W and standing to 0.5m. Excavation required to define and categorise this feature.

These sheilings were recorded by the Strathclyde Archaeology Service in March 1994 (Heather James) and have the WOSASPIN 15676 and NMRS number NS47NE 14.

Firat 2008

The website text produced for Cochno Shielings webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).

Introduction: No one at home!

In the summer of 1786, the famous traveller and writer John Knox, tiring from his journey, came across a township in the Highlands.

"…MacDonald and myself bent hither, as if certain of a good reception of comfortable lodging, and a whole budget of news."

Knox (1787) in "A Tour through the Highlands"

Instead of a warm welcome, however, they found it empty. They were informed by another passerby that "the village had gone to the shielings".

This annual movement of people and their animals was an essential part of a farming community's life-cycle. In the winter they lived in the glens but in the summer they moved to huts built high in the hills. This was to allow their animals good grazing, while removing them from the land near the township, where the crops were now growing. The shieling is the area of land given to each family for their animals to graze.

The term shieling comes from a Norse word. In Gaelic there are several words that are associated with this practice, the most common being "airidh". While both terms refer to the use of the land, it is the ruins of the huts where the people live that remain as evidence of this practice.

High on the slopes of Cochno hill you can find the traces of several shieling huts, the summer home for a farming township.

People Story: Heading to the hills

The movement of the village to the hills was quite an event. On the island of Lewis, where the practice continued well into the 20th century, people still speak of it as the highlight of the year.

The men would go up in advance to repair any damage to the huts. The boys would take any animals not still needed at the farm. The youngest boys' job was to collect heather, which

"….when packed close; standing right and uppermost within boards, or borders of stone on the beaten clay floors, was good to lie on as a spring mattress and far more fragrant."

Campbell, D. (1895-99) in "Highland Shielings in the Olden Time"

The women brought the milk cows once everything was prepared. They came carrying bedding, dairy utensils and oatmeal. They would lift their long skirts and tuck them into their belts for the walk up, knitting while they walked.

Away from the village did not mean a holiday; the summer would be spent making cheese and butter and teaching their daughters how to prepare and spin wool for weaving during the winter.

After the fires were lit and a meal eaten the men returned home. They did not spend the summer at the shielings but back at the township; without the animals to care for they could tend and harvest the crops, and undertake the essential repairs to their houses for the coming winter.