Taransay, Raah

A cart track follows it down to Paible, the main village overlooking a natural harbour, with a fertile valley seamed with lazybeds running back into the hills. Enclosed by a wall, two chapel ruins, each with its own graveyard: Teampall Chè and Eaglais Tarain (the former, dedicated to St. Keith, the traditional burial place of the men, the latter, dedicated to St. Tarran, where the women were laid to rest). Farmhouse and steading, 1901, built on a hillock behind the village for the Berneray farmer, John Campbell, now self catering accommodation, along with the schoolhouse on the eastern side of the bay, which closed in 1935. These buildings formed the nucleus of the settlement created here in 2000 for the TV programme Castaway. Northeast, on the shore by Sgeir Mhor, lies the former village of Raa, with ruins of longhouses, some over 60 ft in length, barns, byres and corn drying kilns.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NG09NW 12 centred on 039 998

A township comprising five unroofed buildings, a field and an enclosure is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Island of Harris 1881, sheet xii). Eleven unroofed buildings and three enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1974).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 21 February 1997