Monument record MHG51086 - Muck, Eilean Nan Each

NMRS Report: (20/11/2007 16:57:39)
NM38SE 10 3965 8131

The cliffs on the SE coast of Eilean nan Each are riven by a series of gullies providing easy access to and from the shore. Most are sheer-sided, and access through them has been closed off by short lengths of wall (NM 39574 81270 to NM 39694 81406). These are reputed to have been built to keep sheep on the shore, where they could eat seaweed, and to control access to the grass inland.
Two or three walls cut across the gullies, supplemented by lengths of wall on the lower of the outcrops forming the sides. Two phases of construction are represented, the earlier comprising low stony banks, the later drystone walls standing up to 1.5m in height. One of the latter has a constructed gap, presumably for a gate (NM 39694 81348). What may have been a fold has also been built amongst the sheer-sided outcrops on the S shore (centred NM 39598 81298); its walls stand up to 2m in height and are 1.5m in thickness, forming an irregular enclosure measuring between 6m and 7m across internally. In some cases low stone walls extend the lines of crags as they fade away in height towards the interior of the island, serving both to close off access to stock, and perhaps also to funnel beasts down towards the gullies and the shore.
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 20 June 2002