Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Archaeology Notes
Event ID 649278
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/649278
NC50NE 15 5769 0685.
(NC 5769 0685) St Maelrubha (d 722) may have had a cell on the island on Loch Shin which is named after him, Eilean Ma Ruibhe, and lies about 60 yards from the shore of the south end immediately below the manse of Lairg (? Eilean a Chairn: NC 5769 0685).
J Mackay 1897; F O Blundell 1913; W J Watson 1926.
Rev F MacLeod, Lairg could offer no further information on this site.
Visited by OS (W D J) 25 June 1963
The tradition of an association of St Maelrubha with Eilean a Chairn, though tenuous, is still known to the hydro-electric engineer at Loch Shin Dam. There is no trace of any structures, but the island appears wholly artificial, being composed entirely of rubble stones, now covered with turf and stunted trees. It measures 9.0m in diameter and 0.6m high, but the stones extend a further two or three metres around the island before deep water. The engineer states that the water level of Little Loch Shin has been raised about a foot as a result of the dam at NC 582 051.
Visited by OS (N K B) 9 August 1976.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (J B) 16 March 1979.
