1. Currently roofless stone farm building, a Welsh longhouse measuring 20m x 5m shown partly roofed on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map. The building is detached and sited in a sheltered northern hollow below the higher plateau on which the main 19th century Island Farm stands. The construction of the building is of rough stone and is a smaller, simpler structure than the main farm. Its character and position suggests it may be a predecessor to the main farm.
T. Driver, RCAHMW, Oct 2018
2. Visited and surveyed using drone photogrammetry by Louise Barker and Toby Driver of the Royal Commission, 5th April 2025.
This building is depicted on the 1842 Tithe Map and noted in the apportionment as the Homestead of the Island, at that date owned and occupied by William Philipps and Charles Allen. By the 1st edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey Map of 1875, a new farm house and associated buildings had been built on higher ground immediately to the south (NPRN 401141), though the range appeared to have continued in use in some form.
The building is set within an enclosure in a sheltered position against a rock outcrop and is aligned north - south measuring 21.5 metres by 4.95 metres. It is roofless, though the walls largely stand to their full height of 2.05 metres and are 0.6 metre thick. The range comprises 4 units which exhibit clear signs of phasing and development. It is constructed from local island stone, general medium sized boulders, with surviving evidence for lime mortar and render.
The southern unit (1) sits against the rock outcrop and is set higher than the rest of the building. It is the smallest and most ruinous section of the range, internally measuring 2.53 metres by 4.1 metres. Its west face is open and would appear to resemble a store or outhouse of some form. Next to this, unit 2 measures 5.9 metres by 3.75 metres internally. There is evidence for a blocked window in the east wall and a doorway in the west face, a low ruinous section of walling also indicates an internal division. Clearly adjoining this unit and therefore of later date is unit 3 measuring 6.35 metres by 3.9 metres internally. This contains a doorway in the west face, a window in the east face alongside a second doorway (now blocked). Unit 4 at the north end of the building is the most complete with the northern gable end wall standing to full height. It measures 3.7 metres by 3.8 metres internally with a doorway in the western wall. This doorway has T-bar cast iron lintels and the insertion of other iron sections in the adjoining wall suggest some later repairs.
This building is clearly the predecessor to the main farm house on Skomer (NPRN 401141), though the exact date of construction is uncertain. A 1693 map of Skomer by Grenville Collins appears to show a building in the centre of the island and work undertaken by the Skomer Project team in September 2018 in the Well Meadow (NPRN 423436), 150 metres to the southwest of this building, revealed a number of pot sherds including North Devon gravel-tempered ware (bowls of mid-17th to 18th century date) and developed whiteware (19th century) which is likely to link with the occupation of this building (Driver et al. 2018). In addition, an earlier 2017 excavation and resulting OSL dating across a lynchet associated with the south stream settlement (NPRN 421994) some 500 metres to the southwest, brought new understanding to the development of agriculture and settlement on the island (Driver et al. 2020). Alongside Middle Bronze age and Middle Iron Age farming, 12th century Medieval farming was revealed for the first time. Some 50 metres to the east of this dated lynchet are the remains of a likely medieval longhouse (NPRN 424554). It is therefore possible that this building or the site of it, may have medieval origins, linked to either the newly revealed clearance and farming on the island dating to the 12th century or from the documented 14th century use of the island for seasonal rabbit farming and hunting.
Louise Barker, RCAHMW, 12 May 2025.
Sources
Barker, L., Davis, O., Driver, T. and Johnston, R. 2012b. Puffins amidst prehistory: reinterpreting the complex landscape of Skomer Island, in: Britnell, W. J. and Silvester, R. J. Reflections on the Past, Essays in Honour of Frances Lynch. Cambrian Archaeological Association. Welshpool. 280-302.
Collins, Grenville. 1693 Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_great-britains-coasting_collins-grenville_1693/page/n79/mode/2up
Driver, T., Williams, D., and Johnston, B. 2018. Skomer Island: Geophysical prospection and excavation in Well Meadow, west of the Farm. RCAHMW. Unpublished report.
Driver, T., Duller, G.T., Roberts, H.M., Barker, L., Davis, O. and Johnston, B. 2020. Skomer Island: The excavation and luminescence dating of a Bronze Age, Iron Age and Medieval field lynchet associated with the South Stream settlement. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Unpublished report. https://coflein.gov.uk/media/295/185/679235.pdf
Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 25-inch map, 1875. Pembrokeshire XXXI/6
Tithe Map and Apportionment (National Library Wales) 1842 Plan of the parish of Saint Martin in the County of Pembroke https://places.library.wales/