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Claigan
Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Site Name Claigan
Classification Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 10926
Site Number NG25SW 2
NGR NG 238 539
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10926
- Council Highland
- Parish Duirinish
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG25SW 2 238 539.
(NG 238 539). Some 550 yards SE of Claigan Farmhouse, there is a partly destroyed earth-house. It consists of a long narrow gallery running in
a NE direction(260 mag) (Sic), 1ft below the surface, for a distance of 36ft where the passage is blocked by debris. The entrance is dilapidated and measures 2ft 5ins in width. The roof is formed of stone lintels:
the walls are of rough drystone.
Beyond the blocked end of the earth-house is a hollow with blocks of stone appearing above the soil around the margin. This might be the terminal chamber, but there are remains of old houses and enclosure walls in the neighbourhood and this feature may have been connected with them.
RCAHMS 1928.
Earth-house as described above except that it extends for about a further 18.5m to the SW. For the first 4.7m, it is roofless and filled with earth and stones to within 0.3m. of ground level, and it can be traced for at least another 3.7m, the first lintel stone just visible beneath the turf, and the passageway silted up almost to the roof. Beyond this, a slight hollow appears in the turf, and continues the line of the earth-house, but with a slight turn to the west, fading out after about 10.0m where the slope of the ground suddenly increases.
Visited by OS (A S P) 6 May 1961.
Field Visit (12 May 1915)
Earth-house, Claigan.
On the slope of the hill, some 550 yards east by south of Claigan Farmhouse, where there is a stretch of fairly level ground, at an elevation of nearly 250 feet above sea-level, is an earth-house which, though partly destroyed, is in a better state of preservation than most of the structures of this class in the Isle of Skye. It consists of a long narrow gallery running in a north-easterly direction (260° mag.), and 1 foot below the surface of the ground for a distance of 36 feet where the passage is blocked by debris. The entrance is dilapidated and measures 2 feet 5 inches in width. For a distance of about 9 feet the floor is nearly level, and at this place the gallery widens to about 3 feet 3 inches, the height being some 3 feet 5 inches. There is a rise in the floor towards the inner end, and the chamber gradually narrows to a width of 2 feet 2 inches. The walls are built of rough drystone building, and the roof is formed by stone lintels. A number of the side stones have been removed and the cavities thus formed have somewhat the appearance of boles or recesses, but only four of them, three on the south wall and one on the opposite wall, seem to have been built when the earthhouse was constructed. These are placed about half-way along the passage, on the floor level, and measure from 12 inches to 18 inches in height and from 13 inches to 16 inches in breadth. Farther up the hill than the present blocked end of the earth-house is a hollow with blocks of stone appearing above the soil around its margin. This might be the terminal chamber of the earth-house, but there are remains of old houses and enclosure walls in the neighbourhood, and this feature may have been connected with them.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 12 May 1915.
OS map: Skye xv (unnoted).
