Stallachan Dubha - 2

On our walk up the southeast slopes of Ben Hiant on our way to the summits of Stallachan Dubha, we were well aware that we would have good views of the old crofting village of Bourblaige, far below us. Bourblaige was cleared of its population in the years after 1828 - its story is told here.

As expected, we could see the whole village laid out below us. Walking across the uneven ground on which it was built, it is much more difficult to get a sense of the size and arrangement of the settlement, but from high up, even in summer with bracken covering some of the structures, the whole village clearly visible.

Short of taking to the air, this is the best view one could get. Some of the houses and byres are separate from the centre of the village, seen above, while the concentrations of bracken often show where the land is most fertile.

What we did not expect to find was a wealth of structures higher on the flanks of Ben Hiant. Some might have been small shelters, sheilings perhaps, used by villagers sleeping away from home while keeping an eye on cattle and sheep which had been driven up to summer pastures, but most looked much more like burial cairns.

This picture shows a group of four strung out along a slope. The slope is fairly steep, and they aren't built in a good place for protection against the elements, but what they do have is a magnificent view down the hillside towards Camas nan Geall.

All are roughly circular, and some of the stones used are large. Could these be the tombs of prominent people, not from Bourblaige but from a far earlier period when Camas nan Geall was an major settlement? If the chambered cairn at Camas nan Geall was built for an important chief, were these the tombs of lesser chieftains?

The peaks of Stallachan Dubh stand over a circular bowl of sheltered land, clearly visible on the 1:25,000 OS map, which might have been worked as fields. To its west, the hill rises to a narrow saddle in which yet more great piles of rock are found. Again, some of these show that they were organised into circular or semicircular structures.

While the bowl of land would have been protected from the southwesterly gales, this saddle would have felt the full brunt of them, funnelled up the hillside, so it would not have been a good place to build shelters. What this spot does have is wonderful views, this time southwestwards into the Sound of Mull.

There is a wealth of work to be done here by competent archaeologists. Until they start, those of us who make it up into these beautiful hills are free to speculate on the history hidden in these stones.

A Google satellite map of the area is here.