Archaeology Notes

Event ID 693956

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/693956

NR26NE 5 2946 6741.

(NR 2944 6741) A Chrannag (NAT)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

A rectangular, grass covered mound, apparently artificial, and obviously Medieval (information from RCAHMS) in saltings at the SE corner of Loch Gruinart.

It measures 65ft by 60ft by about 4 1/2ft high, the sides are bevelled and there are traces of a ditch on three sides. Resistivity tests in 1961 indicate an anomaly near the centre at a point now marked by a small stone cairn. Lord MacDonald of the Isles is said to have pitched his tent and raised his standard in this mound before the battle of Traight Gruineart in 1598. Sheep recently been buried in it.

The name means 'The Pulpit.

Name Book 1878; S Valdar 1961; F Celoria 1959.

A Chrannag (name not verified) is a sub-square apparently earthen 1.2m high mound built into a low rise in saltings at the S end of Loch Gruinart. It has an uneven, mutilated, but generally level top 16.0m across and a ditch on all but the E side. This ditch, 5.0m wide and 0.6m deep, is further accentuated by tidal erosion and appears to be a quarry-ditch for the mound rather than a defensive feature. There is no trace of the small cairns (Celoria 1959) nor any evidence of occupation. Its origin and purpose is obscure.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (T R G) 7 May 1978.