Monument record MHG28918 - Sanday, Cnoc an Tionail

NG20SE 67 2725 0480, 2727 0482 and 2732 0480

A cottage (NG 2725 0480), a rectangular building and two enclosures are situated on the E shore of the tidal bay on the N coast of Sanday. All are now in a ruinous condition, and although unroofed, the W gable of the cottage still stands complete and its mortared side-walls survive to wall-head height. A D-shaped enclosure adjoins the rear of the cottage and extends upslope, abutting the base of a crag to the SE. The building (NG 2727 0482) lies 16m to the ENE of the cottage and measures 4.9m from NW to SE by 3.3m transversely within faced rubble walls 0.7m in thickness and up to 1.3m in height; a quantity of loose slates lie outside suggesting that the building may have had a slate roof. Two roofed buildings are depicted at roughly this location on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, 1881, sheet lix).
There are traces of several field-banks running up to and along the base of the crag to the SE, while above the crag, there is another enclosure (NG 2732 0480) defined by an earthen bank and containing a possible clearance cairn on the SW side of the interior. A plot of lazy-bed cultivation (NG20SE 83.01) lies immediately above the foreshore to the NE of the cottage.
(Canna 85-7, 91).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 8 March 1996.