Monument record MHG6071 - Boundary Dyke, Unish

Renumbered from NG26NW0001C
JHooper, 28/11/2001

NG26NW 1.18 24 65.

There are at least four phases of township boundary defined by banks running across the peninsula from E to W and there is one N to S boundary which runs N from the southern-most boundary, past the E side of the farmstead NG26NW 1.08 which is earlier than its drystone enclosures, to the sea. Only the latest two phases can be traced continuously across the peninsula, the late 19th century dyke (NG 2333 6530 to 2477 6613), first appearing on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1904 (Island of Skye &c., Inverness-shire, 1904, sheet v), and its predecessor (NG 2374 6377 to 2552 6511), which does not appear on the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (Island of Skye &c., Inverness-shire, 1880, 1904, sheet v). Leading off from the latter is what may be a contemporary bank, which divides the end of the peninsula into two parts, E and W, and runs from NG 2458 6513 to 2385 6670. However at NG 2391 6610 is a right-angled junction, which suggests that the boundary is part of a division of the lands of Unish into large fields associated with the farmstead (NG26NW 1.09). This N-S division cuts across at least two earlier boundary banks at NG 2416 6565 and at NG 2426 6550. Neither of these is continuous as preserved, but the overall line of the southern-most runs from NG 2393 6403 to NG 2423 6538 and from NG 2426 6550 to 2460 6618. A second phase to this bank runs from a junction at NG 2438 6556 to near the E coast at NG 2499 6553. The other bank that crosses the N-S boundary runs from NG 2406 6561 to NG 2429 6572 and is apparently continued by the following lengths of bank through the township, NG 2393 6555 to NG 2384 6550 and then from NG 2381 6546 to the sea at NG 2335 6521.
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 1 November 1990.