EHG5292 - Evaluation - 4 Ellishadder, Culnacnock, Isle of Skye

An archaeological desk based assessment and field evaluation were carried out by West Coast Archaeological Services in 2019 in advance of proposed works for a new house and associated infrastructure at Land South of 4 Ellishadder, Culnacnock, on the Island of Skye. The archaeological structures targeted for this evaluation comprised a stone-built house/byre and a smaller byre, and a turf and stone bank forming a small enclosure. During the proposed developments on-site, the larger of the two structures and the enclosure dyke will be removed and the recovered stone used for cladding the new house. The smaller byre will be retained as an archaeological feature adjacent to the new building. The DBA indicated that the complex of structures were built before the publication of the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map sheet for the area (1875) and that the house/byre still had a roof as late as 1963. The field evaluation including trial trenching of the three features provided a wealth of evidence for their method of construction, artefacts relating to their use and abandonment, and confirmed that the house/byre structure had suffered a conflagration event in the recent past. The artefacts recovered provide a snapshot of social history for the time of the structures use, but also display the complexities in using such material to mark specific events in their life – particularly the timing of their abandonment. <1>