Monument record 1431 - PABBAY

NL68NW 5 606 873

Ruins of a building standing to roof height, measuring 12.0m by 5.5m, with a dry stone enclosure 0.9m maximum height. Various other farm buildings ranging from 2.7m by 3.7m to 15.0m by 5.0m survive to a height of 1.3m with 1.2m thick walls. Some ruined buildings have been made into sheep pens and enclosures.
Visited by OS 19 May 1965.

PY54 (NL60698748) Settlement complex.
Location: Valley floor behind the beach to Bagh Ban bay on wind blown sand soils.
Description: Township area, 80 x 70 m, includes blackhouses, outhouses, enclosures and buial ground. Identification of structures in the township core is complicated by post-abandonment modification and reuse, mainly for sheep control and dipping. The settlement and its area is worthy of a future detailed and accurate survey.
Although the island became uninhabited in 1912 it was continuously used thereafter for sheep grazing and the settlement buildings with its enclosures became the natural centre at which to gather the flock together when necessary. Some of the house shells were subdivided or modified for various reasons connected with the flock and its handling. Additionally there are a number of wooden sheep pens erected to the south of the settlement. A full description of this settlement is to be published in SEARCH volume 6.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86


PY54a (NL60698748) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 8 x 5 m, apparently unimproved blackhouse single cell with drystone walls 1.5 m wide and no visible fireplace or entrance. Orientated east to west. Unidentifiable internal structure at east end. East end appears to have been remodelled.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54b (NL60698748) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Square, 6 x 6 m, barn single cell with thick drystone walls and entrance to east. May originally have been a blackhouse slighted by later enclosure wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54c (NL60698748) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 8 x 5 m, unimproved double cell blackhouse ofdrystone walls with internal divisions and thickening of inner south-west wall, which may be a later development.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54d (NL60698748) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 13 x 6 m, single-cell unimproved blackhouse of drystone construction with entrance to south.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54e (NL60698748) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 9 x 4.5 m, single-cell unimproved blackhouse of drystone construction, original south door blocked and new one opened in east end wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54f (NL60698748) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 4 x 3 m, two-cell barn of drystone construction with north entrance and narrow room partition wall foundation east-west.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54g (NL60698748) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Rounded wquare, 3 x 3 m, single-cell barn of drystone construction, entrance to the east. Appears to be an L-shaped addition butted on to surrounding walls.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54h (NL60698748) House, modern.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 12 x 5.5 m, single-cell modern house with thin sharp-cornered walls, entrance to east flanked by glazed windows, also a pair of glazed windows to the west, and with a fireplace and chimney built into each gable wall, north and south. Building stone is quarried, dressed and fixed with cement mortar. A concrete porch step to front entrance. The timber frame floor has long since rotted away, but the slots for roof joist timbers are still visible and the chimney pots are still in place. Buxton (1995) gives the name of the builder as Donald MacAulay of Castlebay, Barra, who constructed it, probably in the 1890s, for one of the Uist families that had replaced the old Pabbay population in the mid-19th century.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 86

PY54i (NL60698748) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Wquare, 3 x 3 m, single-cell drystone built barn with entrance to north-east tacked on to the northern edge of the 'infield' enclosure system.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54j (NL60698748) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 12 x 7 m, single-cell unimproved blackhouse of drystone construction, greatly modified in conjunction with the formation of the central enclosure 54o.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54k (NL60698748) Sheep dip
Location: As above.
Description: Square, 4 x 4 m, single-cell modern sheep-dip.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54l (NL60698748) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 6 x 4 m, single-cell drystone barn possibly a remnant of an original blackhouse.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54m (NL60698748) Sheep dip.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 13 x 6 m, single-cell modern sheep dip.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54n (NL60698748) Sheep.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 8 x 4 m, modern single-cell sheep dip continuation of k.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54o (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Triangular, 20 x 17 m, modern late addition drystone enclosure appears to be connected with the sheep dips and building j.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54p (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Boot-shaped, 40 x 30 m, drystone-walled enclosure.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54q (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Area between settlement and rocky crags to west.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54r (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Not clearly defined as only a short length appears to survive, but an enclosure around the burial mound PY55 could be expected.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54s (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Indistinct, 30 x 20 m, walled enclosure.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

PY54t (NL60698748) Enclosure.
Location: As above.
Description: Irregular-shaped, 40 x 25 m, drystone-walled enclosure between village and stream to south.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

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