[1] Though many were originally kirktowns,[2][3] today they are often thought of as small villages lacking a church, post office, or other formal building.
It is likely that many date to medieval times or earlier – a cluster of small single-storey cottages of farmers and/or fishermen, invariably found on poorer land.
According to David Lloyd, the Great Famine in Ireland (1845–49) caused such disruption to the social system that the clachans there virtually disappeared;[4] many in the Scottish Highlands were victims of the Clearances.
Some are clustered in a dip in the landscape, to protect from Atlantic winds, but others stretch haphazardly along main roads.
It originally denoted one of two things: This should not be confused with the Scottish Gaelic plural of clach which is clachan "stones", a homonym.