Monument record MHG6004 - Hallin

NG25NW 11 249 589.

The crofting township of Hallin is located on the SW side of the public road to Trumpan, SE of the junction with the Geary road. It runs down to the coast to the W and is bounded by a drystone wall to the SE and NW where it marches with Peinstaphen (NG25NW 10). There are 42 buildings and at least 8 enclosures, largely dispersed along a line about 150m SE of the public road along which is an intermittent track. Most of the buildings recorded are roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Island of Skye &c., Inverness-shire 1880, sheet ix), and, while some are unroofed by the second edition (1904), many of the presently occupied dwellings are on the sites of earlier buildings. The area of the township has been heavily improved and only fragments of ridging can be seen on the ground. The layout of fences and walls follows the pattern of the crofts and appears to have been relatively stable from at least 1880, the changes between the 1st and 2nd edition maps refer merely to slight variations in the area of improved ground. The 1st and 2nd edition maps extend the Hallin township to include Peinstaphen (NG25NW 10) and Dunhallin (NG25NE 11). It appears that Hallin crofts combined the lands of the old farm of Peinstaphen and Hallin. The original boundary between the two has been lost, but may have run along the small burn that rises at NG 2538 5918, some 300m WSW of Dun Hallin (NG25NE 1), and may explain the pattern of boundaries around the broch (NG25NE 1.07).
The farm of Hallin is first documented in 1683 in a rental of the MacLeod estate (R C MacLeod 1928, Vol.I) and by 1788 had a population of 51 prior to reorganisation (SRO GD 9/3 Abstract Minutes of the British Fisheries Society 1786-1788).
Centred on NG 247 587 is a series of strips defined by stony banks and aligned across the contour and no more than 20m wide. These are shown on the 1st edition but appear to have been redundant by the 2nd and are not paralleled in the other townships on any of the maps.
(WAT90 156; 158-178; 1195-1214; 1251-1252; 1255-1257)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 2 October 1990.

A township, comprising twenty-one roofed, three partially roofed, seven unroofed buildings and one unroofed structure is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1881, sheet ix). Thirteen roofed and fifteen unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1965).
Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 6 November 1996.