Loch A' Phearsain

NM81SE 3 8553 1351.

(NM 8553 1351) There is a small artificial island of stones, with a harbour for a boat, at the south end of Loch Pearsan (Loch a' Phearsain). It is said to have been constructed by a freebooter named Macpherson, whence the name of the loch.

D Christison 1889.

According to local tradition, the island housed a small religious settlement sacked by a freebooter named Macpherson in the early 19th century. The island is obscured by thorns and fallen trees and, apart from a small harbour area in the north west, it is completely enclosed by a wall. At the south west and south east end, the wall is about 3 metres wide but elsewhere it has deteriorated to a much reduced width. On the west side, on the highest point of the island, there is a building within a small enclosure. It is oriented NW to SE and measures 6 metres by 4 metres with walls about 0.7m wide and 0.5m metres in height. Adjacent to the harbour are the footings of a second building. The date or purpose of these features are not known but the fine construction of the walls suggests that the site was of some importance. There is, however, no evidence to support the tradition of a religious settlement having existed here.

Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale

Visited by OS (R D) 1 December 1969; Information from A Craig, Kinnaird, near Kilmelford.

Fortified Dwelling: This small island is enclosed by a substantial dry-stone wall within which there may be seen some remains of buildings of dry-stone construction (see plan on Illustration Card). The wall is fairly well preserved for much of its length, and rises to an average height of 1.2m. Part of an inner face is visible on the E side, where the wall apears to have had a thickness of 2.7m, while traces of what is probably a similar face, now largely concealed by debris and vegetation, can be seen on the W and S sides, however, where the wall may have been no more than a revetment.

Towards the centre of the N side of the enclosure there are the remains of two buildings of sub-rectangular plan. Building A measures 10.7m from NW to SE by 7.0m transversely over walls about 1.0m in thickness, and appears to have been sub-divided by a stone partition-wall. The small hut that overlies the SE end of the building is probably a modern duck-shooting hide. Building B lies parallel and adjacent to A; in its original form it appears to have measured 9.4m by 6.1m over walls about 1.0m in thickness, but in a secondary phase of construction the building was considerably reduced in size. A third building (C) which abuts the inner face of the NE section of the enclosure-wall, measures 5.8m from NE to SW by 4.3m transversely over walls about 1.0m in thickness. Immediately to the NW of building C the enclosure-wall returns round a small inlet (D), which was probably utilised as a boat-landing. No traces of a causeway were observed. It is difficult to estimate the age of these remains, but they may probably be ascribed to the late medieval or post-medieval period. Pont's map of the early 17th century indicates that the site was occupied at that date, but by 1843 the buildings were ruinous.

RCAHMS 1975, visited 1971.