Monument record 12218 - Airigh na Beiste, Lewis

1st ed OS map 1849-52 shows a long roofed builidng, a smaller unroofed structure (in the same position as the presetn farmstead) and a series of small enclosures and a larger head dyke. In the Name Book, Airidh na Beiste is described a s a small farmhouse. Only two lengths of probable head dyke, one enclosure and an unroofed building, corresponding more closely to the surviving remains, are shown on the 2nd ed map (1895). The current edition (1973) shows 3 unroofed buidings on the E side of Allt Airidh na Beiste. On the vertical aerial photos of 1946, the headdyke, encloses areas of rig and furrow, and a further enclosure surrounds all but the west side of the farmstead.
B060 NB 36715 34225
a large south-facing building, 8m x 4m, with walls still standing to c. 2m high in places. Very good stonework, of rounded boulders with neat snecking. Both gables and much of the north wall are very tumbled. The southern wall has a central door, with a splayed window either side. Mostly clay mortared with lime mortar aournd the door and windows, possibly later improvements.
B061 NB 36746 34277
a sub-circular stone-lined hollow in the top of a circular mound - the remains of a shileing pre-dating the fields (B064). C. 2m x 2m with an entrance in the west wall.
B062 NB 36742 34341
a small, heavily robbed, shieling hut, aligned N-S with a curved south gable, opposing doorways at the southern end o the long walls
B063 NB 3671234326
A better preserved shieling, with walls standing to 1.4m in places, aligned N-S, c. 4m x 2m.
B064 NB 3665 3430
an area of 4m wide rig and furrow runs down the slope either side of the farm house, covering an area c. 100m x 100m, although they area also likely to have extended into the forestry plantation west of the farmhouse.
B079 NB 36560 34148
A large area of rig and furrow, c. 200m E-W, x 40m N-S. Each rig c. 3m wide.
None of the mapped enclosures were recognised on the ground.
Hooper 2000, 28-29

Also listed in J Hooper 2001, 104

Janet Hooper, 2000, Lewis: Project 891 (Bibliographic reference). SWE41076.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2001, Discovery and Escavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41185.