Hut Sites & Sheep Pens

This is Blanche’s Pen, a small sheep pen or ‘pin’ used in the past by local hill farmers to gather a few ewes in, so one or other can be treated for lameness etc. It lies at the top of Blanche’s Hollow, a valley just north of Blackstairs Mountain. I’m told that Blanche’s were landowners here once, Blanchfield or Blanchard but there are no records for this name in the 1901/11 census for the area, so maybe they were gone by then and it’s an older name.

It’s marked on our new map Blackstairs & Mount Leinster, along with many other small circular enclosures. Some of these are pens like above, others hut sites of indeterminate age. This is one of the great assets of uplands landscapes, as they have been regarded of lesser economic value in the past, so the archaeological and vernacular heritage sites tend to survive. The same is true for placenames, particularly those relating to wet or rocky areas.

But the uplands are always under pressure as others will raise their eyes upwards and wonder how to make money from them. Forestry, windfarms, turf extraction, hydro electric schemes, communication masts.. the list of threats is long. This is why we should value & support the hill farming tradition as when well managed it can keep the land in use without excessive change. That certain mountain valleys remain open hillsides is down to the unwillingness of previous generations of hill farmers who refused to sell out and allow their slopes to be engulfed by trees or other developments. As a group, hill farmers would certainly be at the top of my list for farm support schemes.

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