Sites of archaeological interest on Isle of Skye, and nearby places, visited by Isle of Skye U3A
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Friday, 9 December 2016
Settlement patterns
Today I thought I'd compare the Iron Age settlement pattern with that of the post-mediaeval period. I've assumed that each broch, dun and fort is part of a small community.
Ian Armit (Towers in the North) says that on N Uist and Barra the number of Atlantic roundhouses is similar to the number of tenant farmers in mid 18C - which might seem to indicate a similar population. Possibly/probably similar on Skye. How far does your post medieval period go? Up to 18C?
Your map shows rather more post medieval sites than iron age - still mainly hogging the coast but of course we cannot be sure that we know of all sites - especially prehistoric ones.
I don't know anything about tenant farmers in the 18th century, but I would have expected there to be several in each community. We don't seem to be seeing more than one roundhouse per community on average.
Of course we don't know how big the average Iron Age community was - It could have been large enough to include several duns. We also know that many of the post-mediaeval townships that I have included were created in response to the Clearances. What is the best source for this sort of information?
Ian Armit (Towers in the North) says that on N Uist and Barra the number of Atlantic roundhouses is similar to the number of tenant farmers in mid 18C - which might seem to indicate a similar population. Possibly/probably similar on Skye. How far does your post medieval period go? Up to 18C?
ReplyDeleteYour map shows rather more post medieval sites than iron age - still mainly hogging the coast but of course we cannot be sure that we know of all sites - especially prehistoric ones.
I don't know anything about tenant farmers in the 18th century, but I would have expected there to be several in each community. We don't seem to be seeing more than one roundhouse per community on average.
ReplyDeleteOf course we don't know how big the average Iron Age community was - It could have been large enough to include several duns. We also know that many of the post-mediaeval townships that I have included were created in response to the Clearances. What is the best source for this sort of information?
ReplyDelete