Landscape record MHG34646 - Archaeological Landscape, Ruadh-sgorr, Canna

Created automatically by NMRS Register Utility
User: Admin, Date: Wed 13 Oct 2004
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NG20NW 130 2106 0462 to 2333 0600

A large area of ground at the W end of Canna is annotated as 'Common' on an 1805 estate map of the island. The area lies between the farms of 'Tarbet' (Tarbert, for which see NG20NW 23 and 131) to the E and 'Garresdale' (Garrisdale, for which see NG20NW 44 and 129) to the W, and is almost entirely given over to pasture. Three blocks of pasture are identified on the map, the largest spanning the width of the island from cliff-edge to cliff-edge and containing fragments of a what is undoubtedly an earlier landscape. Here, there are the remains of at least five hut-circles, and these are all associated with stretches of orthostatic walls, some of which form independent enclosures, while others appear to belong to more extensive field-systems such as NG20SW 5. The remaining blocks of pasture occupy the terraces below the steep cliffs, one on the N side and one on the S.
Only one small area of arable ground is depicted on the map, and this can be identified as a plot of lazy-bed cultivation (centred NG 2272 0598) on a terrace below the steep cliffs to the W of Cumha Cholain. Today, the terrace is accessible only by the narrow, precipitous gully of the Allt na Criche Tuatha. In 1880, when the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, 1880, sheets liii and liv) was published, the terrace was depicted as unimproved ground.
Information from RCAHMS (ARG), 24 November 1997.