Clachan 1

A view of the clachan, or house cluster, at Galboley above Garron Point in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Clachans were common before enclosure of the fields. When land was farmed by rundale, and each farmer had a number of strips which would periodically be reallocated, there was no advantage to live out in the cultivated land. Clachans like this, with their complex rights of way and conflict over access gave rise to the word still used in this part of Ireland - throughother. This clachan is built on a rotational slip block and seems only to have one building occupied at the time this photograph was taken. For a close-up of this clachan see the next image.