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MHG62443 - Farmstead - Upper Milovaig, Skye

Summary

Remains of a farmstead at Upper Milovaig, Skye.

Type and Period (2)

Protected Status

Full Description

Remains of a farmstead at Upper Milovaig, Skye.

The farmstead was subject to a preliminary GPS survey followed by trial trenching evaluation and recording by Avon Archaeology (Highland) in 2026 in advance of the redevelopment of the site. The archaeological work was undertaken in accordance with the requirements of a Condition attached to planning consent for the construction of a new dwelling and associated infrastructure. The project was designed to record the remains of the former croft farmstead prior to its destruction, the remains of which were preserved as an unroofed and ruined croft farmhouse and a series of associated earthworks that included an attached enclosure.

The preliminary walkover and GPS survey recorded the principal remains of the croft farmstead. The evaluation stage enabled the fabric, organisation and structural phasing of the ruined dwelling to be examined in detail and to recover some limited stratified dating evidence. In combination, the documentary and archaeological evidence gathered during the project indicates that the croft farmstead was established in the earlier 19th century, certainly prior to the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1878 and most likely in the first half of the century before finally being abandoned and unroofed by 1904.

At the outset the dwelling appeared to have conformed to a type of two-roomed dwellinghouse, a taigh-dùbh that incorporated an outer and an inner room, an arrangement common across the Western Isles and Hebrides. The building was constructed from readily available materials with walls formed of roughly faced and unmortared drystone rubble that were up to 1m wide and preserved to a maximum height of 1.7m. Neither of the gable walls incorporated a chimney stack, indicating that the hearth was very likely located centrally at floor level in the larger of the two internal bays, the outer room or ‘But’. The building was later modified by the addition of two further internal walls, which defined a third small room at the southern end of the building that was entered via an extremely narrow doorway. The function of the room was not evident although use as a kitchen area is postulated. No trace of a contemporary floor survived in any of the interior rooms, nor any evidence pertaining to its original roof structures or the location of windows. The absence of any evidence for flooring or any internal fittings, the former most often formed of hard earth, raised the possibility that the internal floor surfaces were formed of stone slabs that had been subsequently robbed.

Earthworks attached to and located adjacent to the former dwelling defined an original trackway, a small squared enclosure and a small yard, the latter possibly a garden area. Two further small enclosures are suggested. The principal enclosure, possibly either a garden plot or for animals, was not defined by a wall but by an earth bank that was faced and consolidated on either side with closely packed cobbles and rubble.

Stratified finds were restricted to a small assemblage of later post medieval White ware and Transfer-printed ware pottery recovered from the fill of an internal drain. The assemblage was considered consistent with an earlier C19th date for the construction and use of the dwelling. On the basis of its overall arrangement and the evidence gathered during the present project it was suggested that the Milovaig crofthouse broadly conformed to a recognised style of rural dwelling that was once the norm on Skye, its rounded external corners indicating a chimneyless hip-ended roof and overhanging eaves typical of the ‘Skye Type’. <1>

Sources/Archives (1)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NG 1548 4967 (39m by 59m)
Map sheet	NG14NE
Geographical Area	SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Civil Parish	DUIRINISH

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

Related Investigations/Events (2)

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