Monument record MHG21360 - Mellon Charles

NG89SW 3.00 centred on 845 913
NG89SW 3.01 NG 84 91 Cottages: cruck-framed

"Applies to a large district of fishermen's crofts situated on the E shore of Loch Ewe and W of Ormiscaig…extending from a dyke immediately to the E of Allt Bhruachan Rhuadha to Geodhachan Bana…"
Name Book 1881 <1>

A crofting township comprising 106 roofed, 13 partially roofed, 24 unroofed buildings and their associated enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Ross-shire 1881, sheet xix). Several of the roofed buildings have rounded unroofed compartments at one end which may indicate that these buildings are kiln barns. 88 roofed, 4 partially roofed and 50 unroofed buildings and their associated enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1969).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 22 April 1996

This township is historically a part of the Gairloch estate and was laid out in the unique experimental grid pattern of crofts in the 1840s. Each square croft holding had an approximately central croft house in an attempt to encourage good husbandry. The main disadvantage of this layout was difficulty of access, particularly after construction of the public road. A number of trackways had to be included in the design, running between the crofts, to allow access to the higher houses. Despite this, a great number of the houses, particularly in the higher croft squares, were soon abandoned and many of the trackways are now overgrown. Modern housing is now beginning to reoccupy the
higher ground with greater ease of constructing access roads. <2>