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MHG39769 - Shieling - Fencer's Cairn, Raasay

Summary

A shieling, inserted into an earlier kerb cairn.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

In 2000, workmen erecting fences reported a feature. The position was visited by ACFA where a shieling set upon a mound of tumbled stones, identified as a kerbed cairn, was found. The cairn and shieling were situated on a steep, south facing, heather covered slope, lying 6m from a footpath that ran to the valley floor above the headwaters of the Inverarish burn and 10m south of the recently erected deer fence. The end of the shieling masked the northern edge of the cairn, into which it had been inserted (seen MHG39192 for kerb cairn). The shieling was 5m long N-S by 2m wide internally, with walls that reached a height of 1.3m on the west side internally. There was an entrance in the centre of the east wall 0.8m wide. Internally the structure was rubble filled with a possible partition wall that may have formed a small cell at the north end. The back of the north wall of the cell shows four or five courses of reasonably well built stonework reaching a height of 1m internally. There was litle doubt that this was a small kerb cairn into which a shieling was inserted many millennia later, taking advantage of the dry, raised base and abundant supply of building materials. 40-50m to the west was a 2 compartment shieling lying under a large rocky out crop (see MHG39747). <1>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NG 5655 3727 (12m by 12m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NG53NE
Geographical Area	SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Civil Parish	PORTREE

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