Canna, Blar Na Carraigh

A shieling area. Lethbridge's excavation survives in poor condition at NG 2706 0605. The structure exposed appears to be a rectangular shieling about 6.5m by 2.5m. Immediately to the N are three circular, probably beehive, shielings about 5.0m in diameter surviving as hollow grassy tumps. About 40.0m to the E are traces of a group of about seven turf-covered circular structures about 2.0m in diameter. About 150.0m to the SW are the remains of a blackhouse with contemporary walls and lazybed cultivation. There is no trace of earlier cultivation in the area.

Visited by OS (I S S), 25 May 1972.

(Location amended to centred NG 2711 0604; reclassified as huts, mound and platform). A group of twelve huts, eigthteen mounds and one possible platform lies at the head of a burn gully where the ground becomes more flat and open. The group is situated above a series of extensively cultivated natural terraces that are contained within a substantial head-dyke depicted in use on an estate map of 1805. Four patches of cultivated ground have been recorded beyond this dyke around the periphery of the group of structures.

The group extends across both sides of the burn, although the majority are situated on the E. The largest hut, however, lies on the W (NG 2706 0604), together with one mound, the platform, and a further five huts, one of which lies on the terrace above and adjacent to a patch of cultivation. This large hut, which is the most impressive of the group, measures 6.3m from NE to SW by 2.5m internally, and is set within a mound spread up to 15m by 12.5m. The interior has two subrectangular compartments linked by a narrow opening in the partition wall. The smaller compartment is located at the N end and has a gap in its NW corner suggestive of an entrance. The larger compartment is at a lower level and its internal E wall still stands 5 courses high. The apparent good condition of the hut suggests that it is probably that excavated by T C Lethbridge in 1953.

The huts and mounds that lie to the E of the burn extend E for about 150m. A few of the huts are linked by a stretch of stony bank, while others are no more than grass-grown earthen mounds with dished interiors lying at the foot of a slope. Amongst them, there is a cluster of four huts and six mounds (centred NG 2711 0604) occupying a slight rise in an area of boggy ground; only one hut contains any stones, and the rest are made up entirely of earth. The four huts are all subrectangular, the smallest measuring 2m by 1.4m internally and the largest 6.7m by 5.5m. The mounds in the cluster are either circular or oval, and range between 5m and 8m in length by 3.2m and 6.5m in breadth; most have dished interiors and are probably the remains of collapsed huts. Overlooking the cluster from a low spur to the SE, there is a large oval mound (NG 2714 0601) similar in size to the excavated hut. It measures 12.9m from N to S by 7.4m transversely and is 0.7m in height; no surface stones are visible.

(Canna 618-47, 946).

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 6 April 1995.

RCAHMS surveyed the huts at Blar Na Carraigh, Canna on 11 March 1996 with plane-table and alidade at a scale of 1:100. The plan and sections were redrawn in ink and later used as the basis for an illustration that was published in 2016 (Hunter, fig. 2.50).