Monument record MHG18961 - Camasinas

NM66SE 12 Centred on 657 610
------
The settlement of Camasinas is situated immediately above the shore on a SE-facing bay to the W of Rubh’ an t-Sionnaich. A house is marked here on Alexander Bruce’s “A Plan of Loch Sunart” of 1733 and on Roy’s Map of 1747-55. The site is still permanently settled and has probably been occupied continuously so that many early remains have been adapted or destroyed.

Some fragments of earlier settlement can be identified, probably belonging to successive phases. Little survives immediately above the shore, where all the currently occupied houses are situated, below a steep cliff and the B8007 road. The foundations of an early house were noted by the present proprietors, at NM 6566 6105, prior to their construction of a new house on the same site. It lay on the NW side of the old road, the “Westway”, part of which can still be seen, running westwards from this point. A wall of coursed stone, 0.60m wide and 0.75m high, at NM 6586 6119, running along the top of the cliff, may have been an enclosure around the houses. A small enclosure, which abuts the wall, is probably modern.

The best-preserved remains of the early township are the evidence of cultivation above the present B8007 road, covering an area c. 500m NE-SW by c. 200m. A substantial turf bank on the E side of Camasinas Burn, running W-E from the burn to a rocky knoll at NM 6572 6131, may be part of an early field system. An area of rig and furrow, centred on NM 6545 6113, is situated on very steep ground on the W side of the Camasinas Burn. The large walled enclosure immediately below, may also have been cultivated as several large clearance cairns are visible, though no rig and furrow could be detected. The structure at NM 6553 6095, marked as a sheepfold in 1875, is of a size consistent with a dwelling, though the large entrance opposite a partition is more appropriate for a sheepfold. It is round-angled rectangular in plan, 10m NE-SW by 4.50m, and defined by a battered wall. 0.70m wide at the base and 0.55m wide at the top. The walls survive possibly to the original wall-head level, 1.40m high, at the NE end. An annexe, 5m long beyond the SW end may be remnant of an earlier phase of construction. It is possible that an early house was later adapted for use with stock.

Two other sheepfolds are also extant: one, marked as a sheepfold in 1875, lies just above the present road at NM 6564 6114 and measures 30m E-W by 17m, divided by a partition. The other, not recorded in 1875, lies above the turf dyke at NM 6576 6135. Measuring 17m NW-SE by 11m and defined by a wall, 0.60m wide and mostly 0.60m high, it contains two small sub-enclosures at the NW end.

Two substantial charcoal burners’ platforms are situated within and just above the area of rig and furrow at NM 6537 6117 and NM 6540 6114. At least two others are visible N of the unnamed tributary of Camasinas Burn.
Field Verification Project (West Lochaber) - J Robertson, 03/2004
------
This settlement is mostly excluded from the SSSI. Five structures were shown here in 1875. The structure at NM 6553 6097 was labelled sheepfold in 1875, and the structure at NM 6564 6114 also has the appearance of a sheepfold though in 1875 it was not labelled as one. The structure at NM 6575 6137 was probably another marked sheepfold. This has been a desk assessment area.
J Wordsworth, SSSIs, Scottish Natural Heritage, 1993

A township comprising one unroofed building, four roofed buildings, one of which is T-shaped, four enclosures, two sheepfolds, some field walls and a short length of head-dyke is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet xxvi). Two unroofed, eight roofed buildings, two enclosures, some field walls and the head-dyke are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1990).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 7 May 1998