St Kilda, Hirta, Claigeann An Tigh Faire
Cleit(S) (Period Unassigned), Platform (Period Unassigned)
Site Name St Kilda, Hirta, Claigeann An Tigh Faire
Classification Cleit(S) (Period Unassigned), Platform (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Lover's Stone
Canmore ID 9648
Site Number NF09NE 3
NGR NF 08375 99267
NGR Description from NF 08367 99247 to NF 08427 99214
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9648
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Harris
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF09NE 3 0836 9927.
(NF 0830 9932) Claigeann an Tigh Faire (NR)
OS 6"map, annotated by J Mathieson (1928)
Tigh na faire - a watch-house, at one time manned day and night.
J Mathieson 1928.
At Claigeann an Tigh Faire there is a platform on the hillside, half quarried and half built up, the floor of which is ringed with slabs of stone set on edge with their long axes on the circumference of a circle about 30ft in diameter. The entrance was not apparent.
Information from R Ritchie (MPBW Mss) 1957.
NF 0836 9927. Situated on the high ridge approach to Mullach Bi, this hut floor is scooped into the hill-slope overlooking Gleann Mor. It measures 7.5 x 6.2m, the height at the rear of the platform being 1.2m at the centre. A ring of stones outlines the hut.
Visited by OS (J L D) 9 August 1967.
Scheduled as 'St Kilda, Claigeann an Tigh Faire, platform and cleitean... a prehistoric platform, presumed to be the base for a house structure, and a large and diverse range of small cleitean... It also includes the Lover's stone'.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 21 May 2002.
Desk Based Assessment (21 January 1966)
(NF 0830 9932) Claigeann an Tigh Faire (NR)
OS 6"map, annotated by J Mathieson (1928)
Tigh na faire - a watch-house, at one time manned day and night.
J Mathieson 1928.
At Claigeann an Tigh Faire there is a platform on the hillside, half quarried and half built up, the floor of which is ringed with slabs of stone set on edge with their long axes on the circumference of a circle about 30ft in diameter. The entrance was not apparent.
Information from OS (JLD) 3 August 1967
R Ritchie (MPBW Mss) 1957.
Measured Survey (9 August 1967)
NF 0836 9927. Situated on the high ridge approach to Mullach Bi, this hut floor is scooped into the hill-slope overlooking Gleann Mor. It measures 7.5 x 6.2m, the height at the rear of the platform being 1.2m at the centre. A ring of stones outlines the hut.
Visited by OS (J L D) 9 August 1967.
Divorced plan at 1:1250
Field Visit (11 May 2007)
A platform and a cluster of fifteen cleits are situated to the SE of the summit of Claigeann an Tigh Faire. The platform is annotated as a Hut Circle on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map and is oval on plan measuring 8.5m from N to S by 5.5m transversely; it appears to be set 2m into the slope on the W. There is no trace of any structural component on the surface of the platform, only small exposures of outcrop along its E edge, and on the N the ground rises gradually onto rock. Though a very distinctive feature, there is no reason to suppose that this platform is anything other than a natural terrace.
The cleits are strung out along the brow of the steep grass slope above the cliff and all but one (Hirta 288) stand to the SW of the head dyke. Thirteen retain all or part of their roofs and turf caps, the remaining two now roofless and ruinous.
(Hirta 274-88)
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 11 May 2007
