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Discussion on NX7854
The ruin referred to as "Old Shieling", is Gillhead. It may have been a shepherd's house, built before Greenhill and Forresthill (or Bengairn) were laid out on the moor in the early C19th. It is probably too modern and too permanent a structure to have been a shieling in the old sense of a dwelling for summer pasturing. Sheep can graze on Bengairn all the year round.
Set into the hillside, approximately 600 feet up on the lower slopes of Bengairn, the house stands on the upper reaches of the Troudale burn where it drops into a steep ghyll running down along the march with Screel. Below the house are the remains of a large, dyked enclosure or croft.
Described as the 'Troudale Croft' in 1925, and still referred to today as 'Old Sandy's' or 'Sannie's', this is the 'Gillhead' where Sandy and Margaret Copeland lived and brought up 6 children, the youngest born in 1834.
The earliest mention of a habitation of any sort on Bengairn moor comes from 1827 when the birth of Mary, daughter of Alexander Copeland and Margaret Coltart was recorded in the Rerrick parish register. Their residence was given as 'Gillhead' and in later entries as 'Troudle Gillhead' (SIC), the couple having moved there from Auchencairn sometime after 1824.
Later, c. 1840, the family moved down to the small farm of Hillhead, also a ruin now, above the Mains of Collin. After 1834 there is no record of occupation at the Gillhead.
Every stone has a story. Rgds JF