the Historic Rural Settlement Group

When organising any field survey, the first question is where? So why did we decide on Raasay? Well, it all began back in 1989 when we were approached by Roger Miket, who was then the Skye & Lochalsh Museums officer, to help in surveying a number of areas on his patch in Skye. In 1991 Roger asked us to carry out a sweep survey of part of the east coast of Raasay, which we did. After a break of a number of years, during which time there was a constant cry from the members of “When are we going back to Raasay?”, my co-director Scott Wood and I were “persuaded” into organising another survey. This was the winter of 1994.

We both realised this was going to raise quite a few questions:

Firstly, who owned the island and what about the crofters?
Where on the island would we start the survey?
What would be the format?
What was to be our final objective?
What should we do with the results?
How long should this initial survey last and when should it take place?
How many volunteers did we think we would require?
Where would we stay and how would we get there and back?
What equipment would we need?
What about maps?
Did we have access to any records of the island’s history?

We began to wish we had not been “persuaded” and if we had realised that in 2004 we would be planning the survey for 2005 we may have given up there and then. We didn’t, and we are glad we didn’t as it has become something of a labour of love.

We have had a number of pieces of good luck over the years and the first one was being introduced to Mrs Rebecca Mackay back in 1991. Rebecca is the secretary of Urras Dualchas, the Raasay Heritage Trust, and she has been a great source of information and support. She explained that the island was owned by the Scottish Office and that the crofters had a committee who looked after their interests. By good fortune her husband Calum Don was their clerk to the grazings. We quickly applied for and got permission to proceed.

The next question was where to start. We decided on the west coast, being the more accessible, and at a point just clear of the inhabited crofts. This led us to the partially cleared township of Oskaig.

Now further questions arose. What was to be the format and what was to be our long term objective? Our decision was that we would survey each of the cleared or partially cleared townships, of which there are around twenty on the island, in detail producing a map at 1:1000 of the site plus drawings at 1:200 of the individual structures. This would be accompanied by a brief outline of the historical background of the settlement and a full description of the structures and the site. In addition, a field survey of the area around the site would be carried out. Our long term objective would be to record all the physical remains of human activity on the Island of Raasay – a fairly tall order!

At this point we decided that each year’s results would be published as an ACFA Occasional Paper. We determined to publish in the same year as the survey was carried out and lodge the Papers with the NMRS, with an extract placed in DES.

We now moved on to more immediate problems. After some discussion we decided that the first survey would last from Tuesday through to Friday with the volunteers arriving on the Monday and returning home on the Saturday. How many volunteers would we need? As may as we could get! The timing was fixed for Easter as the bracken is down at that time with no new bracken shooting as yet. In addition most of the volunteers had or could get holidays at that time.

Now the more domestic questions. Where to stay and how to get there? The second problem was relatively easy; we would use our cars, giving lifts to those who required them. The first was slightly more difficult. There is a Youth Hostel and a Hotel on the island, but we felt it might be too much to ask the volunteers to pay for hotel accommodation so we decided for the first year on the Youth Hostel. Our second piece of luck was that Scott was a long time member of the SYHA and we were able to have the hostel to ourselves. Before we called for volunteers, Scott and I plus our wives decided to pay a reconnaissance visit in February to acquaint ourselves with the site we had chosen and to check out the hostel. We have continued to carry out a reconnaissance visit in February ever since. We then sent out a flyer to the members calling for volunteers. We received five replies, and this plus the four of us makes a total of nine. As we had no idea of what the response might be and as it was at short notice we were quite pleased with this.

Now for maps. The Skye & Lochalsh Museums service supplied us with copies of the 1:10000 OS maps. Our research into the history of the island was made a lot easier when we were very fortunate in discovering Dr Richard Sharpe’s two volumes on the History of Raasay. These two volumes, easily read and thoroughly researched, have been the basis of our knowledge of the history of the island and must be the definitive work on Raasay as well as being an extremely useful tool for anyone researching an area of Scotland as the bibliography and lists of reference material are exhaustive.

So it was that in April ‘95 we began our survey of Raasay, which is still ongoing.

Over the years we have put into effect a number of changes brought about by our experiences. Firstly, we have found the continued importance of a reconnaissance visit, even now when we know the island well. Secondly we take the time to sort out our teams of three well in advance, trying to match people with different aptitudes and levels of fitness into the right slot.
Thirdly, we hold a briefing meeting some weeks before the survey and hand out maps and information as to where and with whom the volunteers will be working. This gives the volunteers a chance to raise any questions and also saves time during the survey.