Monument record MHG6663 - Trumpan Beg

NG26SW 11 232 616.

The farm of Trumpan Beg is first documented in a rental of 1683 (R C Macleod 1928, Vol.1). In 1781 both Trumpan Beg and Trumpan Mor
were sold to Donald MacDonald of Balrauld (R C Macleod 1929, Vol.2).
Its township may be identified with a loose cluster of buildings and enclosures centred on NG 232 616. A substantial and more-or-less cohesive bank appears to define the township boundary. It may be traced from the coast to the N of Trumpan Church, along the burn to the E of the Church before swinging to the E through the improved fields and taking at least two, possibly sequential, lines along the sides of two parallel unnamed burns and then running N along the second terrace up from the modern road. It runs to the N of the sheepfold and returns towards the coast around Rubha Dubh, terminating in an area of waste which divides the Trumpan remains from those around Borrafiach (NG26SW 2). The 'head dyke' does continue, and Borrafiach may originally have been an extension of Trumpan Beg rather than a separate unit. Most of the area to the W of the modern road has been heavily improved, perhaps during the life time of the farmstead at NG 2274 6159 (NG26SW 11.03) with which the rectangular drystone wall fields may be associated. To the E of the road in a strip running approximately N to S are extensive globular fields within and between which are large areas of lazy-beds interspersed with smoother areas of more recent agriculture. In addition to the loose cluster of the township buildings there is a scatter of farmsteads (one or two buildings and a garden plot), isolated buildings, shielings, at least two hut-circles and a souterrain within the area of the township dyke. Beyond the ridged and enclosed area, towards the spine of the peninsula much larger areas have been enclosed by substantial dykes, forming part of an extensive network of large scale enclosure along the top of the ridged and enclosed areas along the W side of Waternish and to a lesser extent on the E.

11.01 NG 2263 6128 Buildings; Saddle Quern/Whetstone (233-235)
11.02 NG 2260 6155 Kiln-barn (236)
11.03 NG 2274 6159 Farmstead; Kiln-barn (Possible) (237-239)
11.04 NG 2290 6166 to 2278 6186 Buildings (593-600; 603)
11.05 NG 2299 6118 Building; Enclosure (226)
11.06 NG 2280 6118 Buildings; Enclosures; Mound (227-232)
11.07 NG 2315 6140 Buildings; Mill (Possible) (1051-1060; 1090)
11.08 NG 2316 6260 Platform (604)
11.09 NG 2317 6255 Building (605)
11.10 NG 2309 6253 Farmstead; Enclosure (606-608)
11.11 NG 2315 6244 Souterrain; Mound (609)
11.12 NG 2317 6218 Hut-circles (610-611)
11.13 NG 2334 6210 Huts (1320-1321)
11.14 NG 2330 6231 Farmstead; Shieling-mounds; Shieling-hut
(612-615; 1006-1007; 1319; 1322)
11.15 NG 2351 6188 Enclosure; Huts; Sub-peat Dykes (1006-1007)
11.16 NG 2362 6188 Hut; Mound1(1008; 1320)
11.17 NG 2355 6171 Hut (1010; 1321)
11.18 NG 2344 6167 Farmstead; Hut; Enclosure (1011-1013;
1316-1318)
11.19 NG 232 616 Township (1061-1089)
11.20 NG 228 623 Huts (1316-1318)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 29 September 1990.

A township, comprising eight roofed buildings, one partially roofed building, six unroofed buildings and two enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1880, sheet ix). Three roofed buildings, one partially roofed building and eleven unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1965).
Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 11 November 1996.