Monument record 1391 - SHEABIE, BERNERAY

NF88SE 9 centred on 897 802

(Centred NF 897 802) Sheabie: A number of ruined buildings.
Name Book 1877

Sheabie is a depopulated settlement comprising 14 buildings of average size 11.5 x 4.0m internally, with walls up to 1.7m thick and 1.0m high. It also comprises some drystone enclosures.
The name is still known locally, although the site was depopulated over 100 years ago - c.1850.
Visited by OS (N K B) 20 June 1965

Called Siabaidh by I A Crawford, who states that documentary evidence that this baile was evacuated after a major sand blow in 1697. Probably re-occupied during the 18th century, it was again evacuated in the Berneray clearances of 1853. Presumably the pre-1697 settlement exists at some depth in the sand beneath the later level (planned by Crawford). The early settlement appears (in the form 'Schoby' in the Pont survey carried out c. 1583-96 and this fact - indicating a major settlement, allied to traditions of burial ground in the vicinity, may indicate hat the earlier status was that of a clachan (churchtown). Fifteen buildings remain here; this may not fully represent the 1853 total. State of preservation varies from indifferent to very poor, and they are of characteristic construction with double dry stone walling packed with a core of small stones, turf and sand, the whole some 3.5 to 4ft thick. Doors are occasionally discernible, other features rarely so, but one corn-drying kiln is easily identifiable; also one of the houses has an attached barn with a probable kiln at one end.
D G Hurst 1968

One L-shaped partially roofed building, fourteen unroofed buildings, three of which are either T- or L-shaped, and four enclosures are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Hebrides, Harris, North Uist etc 1880, sheet xxvi). One roofed, thirteen unroofed buildings, three enclosures and a burial ground are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (19).
Inmformation from RCAHMS (SAH) 2 April 1997

The pre-1700 baile is visible eroding along the coastline adjacent to the later site.
In the later site, the buildings are of good, squared stone (possibly robbed from the adjacent coastal dun, perhaps via the earlier baile?), with stone-walled kaleyards.
MML June 2001

D G Hurst, 1967, Post-medieval Archaeol, 110-12 plan, fig. 30 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33357.

Name Book (County), 1998, Name Books of the Ordnance Survey, No. 5, 234 (Unpublished document). SWE4254.