Monument record 2369 - BALILLERAY, BALESHARE, NORTH UIST

NF76SE 23.01 centred on 783 627

(NF 783 627) Balilleray: settlement depopulated before 1882.
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 1st ed., (1882)

(Previously recorded as NF76SE 23) There are the remains of at least forty-three buildings with associated enclosures at Balilleray, ranging from 11.0m by 4.0m to 5.0m by 3.0m, up to 1.3m high. Several stages of desertion, all thought to be post-1845, can be recognised, from the earliest round-ended buildings, now showing as turf-covered banks less than 0.5m high, to quite recent, 19th century, structures with chimneys and fireplaces. The village has not been occupied within living memory: the name is correct.
Visited by OS (J T T) 1 June 1965

A township comprising four roofed buildings, one of which is a school, two partially roofed buildings, twenty-seven unroofed buildings, a field system and a head-dyke is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Hebrides, North Uist 1882, sheet xxxix). Three roofed, one partially roofed, eighteen unroofed buildings and part of the field-system are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1971).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 29 April 1997

The precrofting settlement is depicted on Reids 1799 map and is annotated 'Illeray'; it appears as three clusters of buildingsin a rough southeast /northwest alignment. Current AP's show much of this settlement remains extant.
KM (Arch Service) 26/08/2026

Robert Reid, 1799, Plan of the Island of North Uist (Cartographic materials). SWE41258.