Landscape record MHG34766 - Archaeological Landscape, A'chill, Canna

Created automatically by NMRS Register Utility
User: Admin, Date: Wed 13 Oct 2004
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NG20NE 109.00 2494 0529 to 2733 0570

NG20NE 109.01 NG 2499 0549 to NG 2538 0574 Field-system; Lazy-beds
NG20NE 109.02 NG 2531 0561 to NG 2566 0562 Field-system; Lazy-beds
NG20NE 109.03 NG 2566 0553 to NG 2608 0558 Field-system; Lazy-beds
NG20NE 109.04 NG 2494 0529 to NG 2613 0520 Field-system; Lazy-beds; Field Clearance Cairns
NG20NE 109.05 NG 2643 0513 to NG 2661 0518 Lazy-beds; Field Clearance Cairns

An estate map of Canna dated 1805 shows the farm of ?Keill? (A? Chill) lying towards the E end of the island, and separated by a ?dotted line the march? from the neighbouring farms of ?Corrygan? (Coroghon) to the E (see NG20NE 110) and ?Tarbet? (Tarbert) to the W (see NG20NW 131). By this date, the island appears to have been divided between separate farms, but the boundaries between these farms probably originate from the lands held by the earlier townships. The map also shows the buildings of the township or main settlement on the island at A? Chill (NG20NE 45), as well as the areas of ground that were then cultivated or under pasture.
The courses of the marches are shown on the map as dotted lines, and both are marked on the ground by ruinous turf-and-stone walls running across the width of the island. The western march, between ?Keill? and ?Tarbert?, runs SW from the cliffs on the N coast onto a crag in the centre of the island then turns S and continues to a terrace on the S coast immediately to the N of Dun nam Berbh. The eastern march runs roughly from N to S from above the cliffs to the NE of Carn a? Ghaill to a point halfway across the interior, then turns E along the upper edge of a rocky crag as far as Cnoc Bhrostan, before again turning S to meet the N shore of Canna Harbour. The course of this march is unlike those between the other farms across the island, and the pronounced dog-leg may be the result from redefining earlier boundaries. Little hint of any sub-division of the farm can be detected on the map, but a series of ruinous dykes cutting across the island may belong to an earlier pattern of organisation.
By and large, the area of cultivated ground shown on the 1805 estate map coincides with the surviving traces of lazy-beds and field enclosures, and is of considerably greater extent than the improved ground depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, 1880, sheets liii and liv; 1881, sheet lix). The latter sheet takes in the area of the former township at A? Chill and the coastal fringe along the N shore of Canna Harbour as far E as Coroghon, and still forms part of the enclosed fields belonging to the modern farm. There are, however, numerous plots of lazy-bed cultivation that survive beyond the area of cultivated ground shown on the 1805 estate map, most notably on the narrow terraces below Cnoc Mor and in an area to the W of an unnamed burn below (S) of Blar Beinn Tighe. These probably postdate the map but had been abandoned long before 1881. The surviving rentals and census return figures provide some indication of the population movements on Canna and Sanday in the early nineteenth century, with a decline in population on Canna matched by an increase in that on Sanday, but it was the great Clearance during the summer of 1851 that brought about the most dramatic change, when all the tenants on Canna were removed. The area of A? Chill, which had been inhabited for hundreds of years, was cleared and the buildings and enclosures raised to the ground.
For ease of description, the farm of ?Keill? has been subdivided topographically into six smaller areas, of which the westermost form three discrete blocks separated by walls running the length of burn gullies (NG20NE 109.01-03), two lie on the coastal fringe below the S cliffs (NG20NE 109.04 and 109.06), and the last, and largest, straddles the Allt na Ghruimadeal and includes the settlement at A? Chill (NG20NE 109.05).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 24 November 1997.

NG 27 05 A watching brief was carried out for two phases of excavations connected with the renewal of the Canna water supply. Work included sampling of lynchets and areas of rig and furrow. Mainly post-medieval pottery was discovered, with one sherd of prehistoric pottery being found in a distinct context.
D Hind 1998