Rona, Cro Mhic Iain Choinnich
Building (Period Unassigned), Enclosure(S) (Period Unassigned), Structure(S) (Period Unassigned), Wall (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Rona, Cro Mhic Iain Choinnich
Classification Building (Period Unassigned), Enclosure(S) (Period Unassigned), Structure(S) (Period Unassigned), Wall (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) North Rona; Rona Ronaidh
Canmore ID 1473
Site Number HW83SW 2
NGR HW 8067 3230
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1473
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Barvas
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
HW83SW 2 8065 3230
(HW 8065 3230) Cro Mhic Iian Choinnich (NAT)
OS 6" map, 1965
A complex of six small enclosures, the dry-stone boundary wall of which are poorly preserved apart from one section on the SW perimeter where they remain to a height of 4'.
At the centre of the complex are the remains of one circular and two rectangular huts. The name 'Cro Mhic Iain Chrinnich' suggests its use as a fold; thus in all probability the small huts were used for calving and lambing purposes. There are no traces of cultivation.
H C Nisbet and R A Gailey 1960.
Three conjoined enclosures with an attached unroofed building, which is annotated as a Ruin, another enclosure and two unroofed structures are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Ross-shire, Island of Lewis 1854, sheet 47). The enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1973).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH), 26 June 1997.
Ground Survey (1958)
In summer 1958 a party from Glasgow University carried out a detailed ground survey of the ecclesiastical and domestic structures on North Rona. The village is situated towards the NW corner of an infield of about 20 acres, cultivated in large lazybeds. The pattern of domestic architecture is of a central rectangular courtyard about 30ft by 10ft, surrounded by a variable arrangement of low covered passages and small circular or oval corbelled cells. Two such steadings are built close against the outside of the chapel enclosure wall, on the S side; a third stands apart, a little to the south.
Saint Ronan’s cell and chapel stand in the SE corner of a roughly oval enclosure bounded by a heavy stone and turf wall. The small rectangular cell, almost certainly built before 900 AD, is well preserved, while the medieval chapel which was added to form a nave to it is of more elaborate design and inferior execution.
The houses were occupied as least as late as 1683, and all show signs of reconstruction. A lower limit for the date of human settlement has not been established.
H Nisbet, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland, 1958
