31628: LSFH 25.5 Beinn Iobheir – FIELD BOUNDARY

Summary:

FIELD BOUNDARY (Post Medieval – 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
WALL (Post Medieval – 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
DYKE (Post Medieval – 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
Stone faced turf wall

Location:

NB 28419 16576

Full description:

"This section of stone faced turf dyke runs for 15 metres up the lower slopes of Beinn Lobheir from the modern road from Balallen to Eisgean, which truncates its southern end. Measuring 2 metres in width and standing to no more than 0.25 metres tall there is no sign of the line of this feature continuing on the south side of the modern road line. This fragmentary piece of walling is likely to represent part of a field system related to pre-crofting activities along the north shore of Loch Seaforth Head, or the remains of a stack/kale yard relating to the pre-crofting blackhouses in the immediate vicinity (25.1 and 25.4)." Part of: "The fragmentary remains of a blackhouse settlement can be seen along the line of the Balallen to Eisgean road where it turns to the east and runs parallel to the north shore of Loch Seaforth Head. Consisting of two blackhouses (25.2 and 25.4), a well (25.3) and cultivation features (25.1 and 25.5) the settlement is likely to date to the pre-crofting period as the focus of early crofting and later settlement is located to the south within the extents of the modern crofts immediately above the shore of the loch. The surrounding area was cleared a number of times from 1610 onwards (with the arrival of the MacKenzies) through to the early 1820s. When the site was visited for the 1st edition Ordnance Survey in the late 1840s no occupied settlement was recorded in the area. The preservation of these structures suggests that they probably relate to the last pre-crofting clearances in the area (1823?). The full extent of the settlement has been obscured by the construction of the modern road, and by stone robbing for the construction of the crofting phases structures located to the south on the loch shore." (Burgess 2004, 37 and 37-38)

References:

Chris Burgess, Northamptonshire Archaeology. 2004. Northamptonshire Archaeology Archaeological Survey and Evaluation of Eilean Chalium Chille and the Putative Site of the Seaforth Head Castle. Part No Loch Seaforth Head Gazeteer.

Acknowledgement:

Information provided by Western Isles Council Sites & Monuments Record, January 2006.