Monument record MHG45687 - Lazy Beds, Brae of Achnahaird

A large expanse of lazy-bedding, a head-dyke and a hut occupy the ground between Ruadh Loch and the sea. The hut lies immediately N of the head-dyke, measuring 4.1m from E to W by 2.3m transversely within rubble walls spread to 0.6m in thickness and 0.2m in height with what may be an entrance in the N.
The head-dyke runs from the sea (NC 0154 1415) as far as Ruadh Loch (NC 0085 1398), a distance of c.700m. Whilst it forms the boundary between the arable to the S and the rough pasture to the N for part of its length, lazy-beds extend N of it at both the lochside (NC 0088 1403) and along the seashore (centred on NC 0147 1419). The lazy-beds extend over an area of about 50ha between the fields of Achnahaird farm in the SW and the head-dyke in the NW and between the sea in the NE and Ruadh Loch in the SW. They survive patchily in the improved pasture to the S of the public road to the beach, which is now partly occupied by a camp-site, but are better-preserved in the peaty ground to the N of the road and towards the burn in the SW that runs out of Ruadh Loch (centred on NC 0116 1353). At the latter spot there are long sinuous lazy-beds, which are up to 200m long in places, with broad expanses of flat ground between them that is often wider than the beds themselves, whilst the lazy-beds to the N of the road are more-closely set. There is also evidence of more than one phase of ridging, as in the flat expanse between many of the ridges there are traces of slighter ridges.
May's Survey of 1758 (SRO, RHP 85395) depicts the arable of Achnahaird to be confined to an area to the S of Ruadh Loch, and to fall short of the sea. Morrison's survey of 1775 (SRO, E746/189) identifies a length of 'feal' dyke that has been built by the tenant from Ruadh Loch in the E about half-way to the sea, but its line appears to be S of that that which has been identified on the ground.
(ACHIL94 472)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 11 August 1994