Monument record MHG47282 - Craggan Sheaig

NMRS Report: (25/06/2004)
NH43SE 58 45231 30762

This farmstead comprises the remains of three rectangular buildings, two standing on the SE and NE sides of a rectangular enclosure, and the third a short distance to the NE. The largest building (URQ97 99; NH 4532 3076) measures 12.5m from NE to S by 3.1m transversely within faced rubble walls largely reduced to grass-grown footings, though the NE end has been rebuilt and stands 0.8m high. There are opposed entrances in the side walls, that on the NW opening into an enclosure. The second building, of which only fragments survive, stood against the NE side of this enclosure. The third building stands about 20m to the NE of the others (URQ97 100; NH 4525 3078). This is a gable-ended structure, built of mortared rubble and measuring internally 10.2m from NE to SW by 4m transversely. The SE wall has been almost entirely demolished, as has much of the SW gable, but the NW wall and the NE gable are complete. Three infilled cruck-slots are visible in the NW wall, which stands 2.1m high. The footings of a small outshot are built against the SW end.
No buildings are depicted here on George Brown's 1808 'Plan of the Davoch of Inchbreen' (National Archives of Scotland, RHP 11955), though the name Shiack is applied to fields in this area. All three buildings are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1875, sheet xxix), all roofed except for the SW end of the largest building (URQ97 99). On this map the site is named Balbeg, described in the Name Book (ONB 1870-1) as 'a small district consisting of small farm and cot houses each one storey high thatched and in pretty good repair' (see also NH43SE 45 and 73).
By the date of the 2nd edition of the OS map (Inverness-shire 1905, sheet xxix) the site had been renamed Craggan Sheaig. The largest building is shown re-roofed and enlarged, with a wing (of which no visible trace remains) projecting to the SE from the NE end, while the cruck-framed building (URQ97 100) is shown roofless.
(URQ97 99-100)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 9 October 1997
ONB 1870-1