Eilean Aoidhe

NR 93418 67208 and NR 93361 67265 Eilean Aoidhe (the island of strangers) is a rocky kidney-shaped peninsula c900m E–W by 300m N–S. It is connected to the mainland by a narrow 30m raised strip of grassy land from near the middle of its N shore, forming two bays, Port Leathan on the W and Salann Bay on the E. The E side of the ‘island’ is hillier, rising to 37m. On the N side of Eilean Aoidhe, on the Salann Bay shore, at the base of a steep E–W cliff, are two ruined rectangular dry stone houses at NR 93361 67265. To the E of these, where the cliff runs roughly N–S, is a rectangular dry stone ruin at NR 93418 67208 attached to a stone-built enclosure. These structures are shown on the OS 25” map: Argyll and Bute Sheet CCII.4 (Kilfinan), 1873 (survey 1867).

The front E wall of the enclosure is N–S and measures 29m. The S wall is at 90° to it and runs for 32m up to the cliff base. The N wall is at an angle of 80° to the E wall, and is 31m long to the cliff. The whole enclosure was deeply covered with bracken, so the interior was not examined, nor the rear wall, which appears to follow the line of the cliff at an angle to the front wall. The enclosure has a 2.5m wide gap 5m from the S end of the E wall and a 1.3m gap in the N wall, just E of the attached house, which is in the NW corner, at the cliff base, in front of a large cleft in the rock. The house is externally 5.6m N–S and 6.1m E–W, with walls 0.6m wide surviving up to 1.3m high. The N end wall has a door and a window, both are 0.9m wide.

Of the two adjacent houses at NR 93361 67265, whose closest separation is 6m, that to the W is larger, 14.9 x 5.8m externally, with 1.9m high walls. Orientation of the long axis is 30° W of N. The width of the external walls is 0.75m. An internal wall 0.5m wide divides it into a N compartment 5.6m long internally, and a S compartment c7.3m internally. The N room has a 0.9m wide entrance at the S end of its W wall. The E wall of the S room has a splayed window of external width 0.7m, widening to 0.9m on the inside, and two doors c0.9m wide to the S of it. There is also a 0.9m gap in middle of the S wall and a small 0.4m gap in the W wall next to the dividing wall.

The second house has a single chamber 8.4 x 5.3m externally, with its long axis 8° W of N. Its S wall is at the base of the cliff. The walls are 0.6m wide and up to 1.6m high, except for the W wall, which is badly broken. There is a 1.8m gap near the S end of the E wall. The OS 25” map shows a well immediately W of the enclosure, now represented by a wet patch of ground in front of a rocky cleft.

David Dorren and Nina Henry