Monument record 2800 - FUIAY, BARRA

NF70SW 92 7369 0268

What may be a farmstead comprising four unroofed buildings, one of which is L-shaped, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Hebrides, Barra 1881, sheet lxiii). Two unroofed buildings, one of which has two compartments, are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1971).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 2 June 1997

AF9. Rubh an Aiseig
Site Type: 7 blackhouses, pen, outbuilding.
A linear arrangement of blackhouses on the west side of a small tidal bay. The buildings are as follows: (FS20)
A. Blackhouse oriented N-S, 10.25 x 6.15m, door in east wall and no trace of internal partition wall
B. Blackhouse adjoining A and on same orientation, 8.7 x 5.9m, door in centre of east wall, no trace of partition wall.
C. Blackhouse oriented E-W, 11.8 x 7.2m, door in south wall, and parition wall to left of door. A second door was apparently cut through the north wall and a light secondary partition inserted.
D. Blackhouse oriented E-W, 10.4 x 6.2m, door in north wall facing that of house C. No trace internal partition wall.
E. Blackhouse oriented N-S, 10 x 6.7m, and built against SE corner of house D. Door in east wall but at a late stage in use, a door knocked through into building D.
F. Foundations of blackhouse, 16 x 7.5m, oriented N-S, and underlying house H.
G. Blackhouse or outbuilding, 7.2 x 4.9m, oriented E-W, door towards west end of north wall. No partition wall.
H. Blackhouse oriented N-S, 11.3 x 6.9m, door in east wall. This house sits on top of F and is more upstanding than any other house. There is a short pier or projecting wall on the inside west wall, and a lean-to shed outside the door.
I. A pen, 12.8 x 5m, possibly sitting on remains of earlier structure.
Brannigan & Grattan 1998, 46

AF9* (NF737026) Settlement of blackhouses by small harbour. Nine structures were recorded, one of which (F) was reduced to grassed-over low banks and overlain by a standing structure (H), and is thought to predate the rest of the settlement. The buildings are set in a line along a low north-south ridge, and are recorded as structures A-H from north to south...[same details as above]...Building G stood out of alignment with the other buildings, on a tiny promontory, and measured 11.3 x 6.9 m Its door faced north, towards the other houses, and to the remains of a roughly built quay wall. This blackhouse settlement appears to have begun with one or two buildings (F and AF 8), to have gone through a period of enlargement when eight houses were probably all in occupation together, and then to have been abandoned for permanent occupation and its buildings reused for lambing, storage of fishing tackle and other seasonal purposes.
Branigan and Foster 2000, 16-17.

Keith Branigan & John Grattan, 1998, Coastal Assessment Survey Barra and Vatersay (Bibliographic reference). SWE41024.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.