Monument record MHG347 - Shieling Hut, Coire Bhorradail

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NM 6275 5016 (435m by 431m) (Buffered by site type)
Map sheet NM65SW
Old County ARGYLL
Civil Parish MORVERN
Geographical Area LOCHABER

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

Shielings, Coire Bhorradail: The remains of about fifty shieling-huts lie at the foot of Coire Bhorradail, 3.5km NNE of Fiunary, where a patch of fairly level ground situated at a height of about 280m OD forms a gathering-point for numerous tributaries of the Abhainn Shalachain. The huts, now represented either by turf or dry-stone footings, vary a good deal in size and shape; typical examples are shown on plan, which delineates a representative portion of the site. The smaller huts are generally circular on plan, having an average diameter of about 5m over walls some 1.2m in thickness; they appear to have been constructed mainly of turf. Most of them are single-chambered, but a few contain two chambers. The stone-walled huts, on the other hand, are sub-rectangular on plan and measure up to 6.7m by 4.9m over walls 1.2m in thickness. Some of them have opposed doorways situated towards one end, and were probably sub-divided into two apartments of unequal size, the smaller of which may have formed a sleeping-place. These stone-walled huts are probably of later date than the turf-walled ones, which in some cases underlie them.
The site lies astride the boundary of two neighbouring farms, Salachan and Fiunary, and probably owes its unusually large size to the fact that it was shared by tenants of both properties. The shieling probably remained in summer use until about the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries (Gaskell 1968).
P Gaskell 1968; RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972.

Sources/Archives (2)

  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Gaskell, P. 1968. Morvern transformed: a highland parish in the nineteenth century. 17-18, 150, 152, 169.
  • --- Text/Report: RCAHMS. 1980. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona). . 240, No. 367; plan, fig. 253.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (0)

Record last edited

Apr 4 2017 3:30PM

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