Rum, Port-na-caranean

Port na Caranean NM 423 987 NM49NW

The well-preserved settlement of Port na Caranean comprises the remains of eleven buildings and their associated enclosures. While the majority of the buildings are of postclearance date those at the E end of the settlement may be earlier.

RCAHMS 1983, visited May 1983

(OS 6-inch map, Island of Rum, Argyllshire, 1st ed., 1879, sheet lxi)

This township comprises at least fourteen buildings and several small enclosures above the shore at Port na Caranean, together with a head-dyke and traces of cultivation.

Nine of the buildings are grouped into four small farmsteads, set in a rough line and spaced about 50m apart. Each farmstead comprises a house facing the shore and one or two smaller buildings (most of them set perpendicular to the house). In three cases there is also a small yard attached to the rear of the house. The buildings are rectangular with rounded external corners and their outer wall faces display a pronounced batter; the internal corners, however, are square. Many of the buildings survive to wall-head height and most appear to have been hip-roofed, though one outbuilding retains a stone gable. One of the houses still has a stone lintel over the doorway, two have internal partitions, and two have visible fireplaces (one with a mortared chimney).

Of the other five buildings, three lie at the ESE end of the settlement, and two of those have been incorporated into the head-dyke. The final two buildings, at NM 42418 98775, survive in a fragmentary state and were difficult to interpret in dense bracken on the date of visit; but they may represent the remains of an earlier phase of settlement.

The head-dyke, which is of drystone construction, can be traced for at least 300m, running behind the farmsteads, parallel to the shore and up to 80m from High Water Mark. It doglegs in a number of places to join up with two buildings (noted above) and a series of small roughly-rectangular enclosures. Behind the dyke there are several piles and spreads of stone, presumably the result of clearance of the ground to the SSW, which appears to have been cultivated. Finally, in front of one farmstead at the centre of the settlement a slipway has been cleared through the rocks below high water.

Port na Caranean was cleared in 1826, but a few years later it was resettled by a group of families from Skye (Love 2001, 142-3). Most of the visible remains probably belong to that resettlement. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Island of Rum, Argyllshire 1879, Sheet LXI) depicts nine buildings (all roofless) and six enclosures; the same depiction is shown on the 2nd edition of that map (Island of Rum [Inverness-shire] 1903, Sheet LXI).

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, ARG) 11 October 2010.

This township, which was cleared in 1826 but temporarily reoccupied some years later by families from Skye, is situated at the eastern end of the southern shore of Loch Scresort, where the sea loch opens onto the sea (Sound of Rum). Vertical aerial photography indicates the remains of at least 11 rectangular buildings, several enclosures and a head-dyke that is demonstrably of more than one phase.

The township contains the substantial remains of at least four dwellings, rectangular on plan but with rounded external corners, all of which measure approximately 12m in length and are situated between the foreshore and a head-dyke. The westermost (NM 42266 98839) lies on the NNE side of a small oval enclosure and there is a smaller building, end-on to the shore, immediately to the NE. The next building (NM 42290 98821) is situated only 19m SE of the first and lies sandwiched between a small irregular enclosure on the S, a small building immediately W, and the footings of a structure at least 14m in length, lying parallel immediately N. The third building (NM 42331 98797) lies another 36m to the ESE and it and a slightly smaller building immediately to its E form the N side of an enclosure that clearly post-dates one phase of the head-dyke, a section of which has been removed. The fourth building (NM 42384 98782) lies 42m E of the last mentioned building: it has no associated enclosure but an outshot is attached to its N side.

The state of preservation of these buildings indicate that they were the last occupied before the township was cleared and it is these are the only ones depicted (all unroofed) on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1880, Sheet LXI). Other structures which are present but which are less well preserved could be contemporary but their locations and their omission from the 1st edition map probably indicate an early date. Two of these buildings lie close together (NM 42404 98731) towards the ESE end of the township, the larger, on the E, measuring as much as 16m in length. The relationship of these buildings with the early phase of the head-dyke cannot be ascertained from a simply examination of the aerial imagery, but both appear to be overlain by a later phase of the head-dyke represented by a ruined stone wall. This runs up and onto the westerly building before taking a dogleg to then run onto the easterly structure which is also overlain by a square enclosure. A further building (NM 42459 98728) lies 32m to the E.

Information from HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 27 January 2016.