EHG6029 - Walkover survey - proposed Woodland planting, Kensaleyre

A rapid walkover survey was undertaken by M Wildgoose in 2003 of the visible archaeological monuments surviving within the boundaries of an area of proposed native woodland planting. The proposal lay on a south-west facing slope overlooking the modern settlement of Kensaleyre and the head of Loch Eyre. The area surveyed consisted of some 3ha of formerly cultivated ground lying on a well-drained natural terrace at approximately 50 m above Ordnance Datum. During the summer months almost the entire area is obscured by a dense overgrowth of bracken. Almost the entire area of the proposal has seen agricultural use, the proposal being a small part of a greater landscape that occupies the elevated terraces that lie outwith the current crofting boundaries. The "shape" of this landscape — an accumulation of large rounded enclosures that appear to have developed in an unplanned "organic" fashion - would suggest a Late Medieval/Post Medieval landscape of adjacent, autonomous farmsteads. If this model is accepted then the enclosed cultivation which lies within the proposal would belong to the farmstead here designated Site 2. Recommendations were made to exclude the settlement remains from the planting area. <1>