They were once common in the hills and mountains of Scotland. Farmers and their families lived in sheilings during the summer so their livestock could graze common land.

But the huts generally fell out of use by the end of the 18th century - although they continued into the last century in places like the Outer Hebrides.

Now a project is underway to capture their history in part of the Isle of Lewis before they pass out of living memory.

The main part of the project will involve interviews with people who remember going to the sheilings belonging to families from the Point and Sandwick area, and collecting old photographs.

Researched material will then form the basis of an exhibition by Comann Eachdraidh an Rubha and will also be turned into a booklet or book, depending on how much material is gathered.

Backed by Point and Sandwick Trust, the project also aims to create a site map of all the sheilings that existed on Point and Sandwick’s summer grazings on the ‘Stornoway General’, off the Pentland and Beinn a Bhuna roads, and identify their ownership.

Writer and translator Andrew Dunn, from Point, will be carrying out the research and producing the written material, which will be fully bilingual. He said: “It’s about the community ties to the sheilings – the airidhean – specifically the ones that were used by the community in Point and Sandwick. Hopefully it will eventually take the shape of an exhibition at the Comunn Eachdraidh and also a report or booklet which would be online as well, maybe even going towards a short book.

“The idea is that it involves a lot of research. Initially it will be looking at written material but also doing interviews with people who have firsthand experience, so time is a factor.”

Mr Dunn is hoping to speak to as many people as possible with memories of the sheilings. “This could be at any sort of stage," he said. "I’m interested in older people who would have had the experience of travelling out to the summer grazings as part of the actual routine of life but also people who went there just for holidays because I know people who did that - any experience at all." 

Mr Dunn will be taking an audio recording of the memories and collecting photographs at the same time.

Copies will be made of all photos so that originals can be returned.

He added: “If people have knowledge of whose sheiling was whose, we’re interested in hearing that as well, because part of the project will be doing a map of the sheilings and showing which sheiling corresponded to which croft or family.

“It is a very important part of the community history and it’s a way of life that disappeared but people still remember it and it’s a way of life that was common, not just in the Islands and Highlands as well, but throughout Europe at one point.”

Donald John MacSween, general manager of Point and Sandwick Trust, said the project was “about recording the memories of people who were involved in the last traces of transhumance in the area up until the early 80s”.

Garrabost native Calum Graham is among those with fond memories of the airidh. His first summer at the shelling was in 1947 at the age of five – and he is “very happy” the memories of shelling life are going to be preserved.

He said of the project: “I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s a very important and rich part of our history and culture.”

Catriona Dunn, secretary of Comann Eachdraidh an Rubha, said now was the “right time” to collect memories “while there are still a reasonable amount of folk”, such as Calum, who remember it.

She added that, while the community already has some valuable records on sheiling life going back to the 1930s, there was still a lot more out there, not yet recorded.