31646: LSFH 25.6a Beinn Iobheir – FIELD SYSTEM (Post Medieval – 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Summary:

FIELD SYSTEM (Post Medieval – 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
Pre-crofting feannagan or lazybed field system

Location:

NB 28741 16538

Full description:

"Located on the southern slopes of Beinn Lobheir, overlooking the northern shore of Loch Seaforth Head. This area of ridge and furrow or feannagan cultivation consists of beds running from north to south downhill for 20 metres, covering an area of 26 metres from west to east. This area of cultivation is likely to be a fragment of a much larger system relating to the pre-crofting settlement in the area (25). Other fragments included (25.1)." 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, 50 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.