Carn An Roin
Crannog (Period Unassigned), Logboat (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Site Name Carn An Roin
Classification Crannog (Period Unassigned), Logboat (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Loch Awe; Achnacarron
Canmore ID 23451
Site Number NN02SE 15
NGR NN 0648 2237
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23451
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Glenorchy And Inishail (Argyll And Bute)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NN02SE 15 0648 2237.
(NN 0648 2237) Carn an Roin (NAT) Crannog (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
Investigation in 1972 by a naval sub-aqua team under the direction of Dr T D McArdle of Edinburgh University confirmed that the island in Loch Awe known as Carn an Roin, 520 metres east of Achnacarron and about 70 metres off the west shore, is a crannog. There is no evidence of either harbour or jetty, though a smooth, curved plank found embedded in the surface stones might be a re-used canoe bottom. In the SW, in the angle between the crannog slope and the natural glacial ridge on which the crannog was built built, is an accumulated refuse heap in the shape of a semi-circle. In its vertical edge, it is possible to trace strata of various materials, including a line of trimmed timbers, about 0.3 metres from the top of the midden, lying in a stratum of twigs, grass and leaves. One of the timbers has a circular half-check cut out of it and McArdle thought it possible that what is now visible in this section may be the remains from the destruction of a house which once may have stood on the crannog, the twigs etc being perhaps the original thatch, preserved underwater.
RCAHMS 1975; T D McArdle and C M McArdle 1972.
In 1972 underwater archaeological survey revealed what was possibly the bottom of a logboat 'embedded in the surface stones' on the NE side of a crannog and about 5m from the waterline. It lay radially, with the visible pointed end towards the centre of the crannog, and may have formed an outer structural timber. The remains were left in situ and not recorded in detail.
The crannog is situated 480m E of Achnacarron farmsteading, near the NW shore of Loch Awe, a major freshwater loch which is situated in a glaciated valley at an altitude of 36m OD.
DES, (1972), 11-12; B L Hardy, T D McArdle and D L Miles 1972; C M McArdle and T D McArdle 1972; C M McArdle and T D Mc Ardle 1973; RCAHMS 1975; R J C Mowat 1996; information from Dr D McArdle.
Note (1975)
As a result of an underwater survey of Loch Awe undertaken in 1972 by Naval Air Command Sub-Aqua Club under the direction of Dr and Mrs T D McArdle, no fewer than twenty crannogs have been positively identified (The Commissioners are indebted to Dr and Mrs T D Mcrdle for permission to include this information). The tops of many of them are visible as small stony islands, but others are permanently submerged. In at least nine instances their structure can be seen to include timber baulks, which in one example are radially disposed. Causeways linking the crannog to the shore have been detected at five examples and the remains of jetties or of harbours, comparable to that discovered at Milton Loch I (Kirkcudbrightshire) (PSAS, lxxxvi (1952-3), 136), have been noted in six cases. The sixteen crannogs of this group that fall within the boundaries of Lorn are shown on Fig. 79 and are listed below in the order in which they occur from NE to SW, those off the NW shore of the loch being numbered 1-8 and those off the SE shore 9- 16.
(1) 280 m E of Ardanaiseig (No. 307) and 20 m from the shore (NN 091 248).
(2) 50 m from the W side of Inishail (NN 095 244).
(3) 700 m SSE of Ardanaiseig (No. 307) and 20 m from the shore (NN 090 241).
(4) 455 m SE of Larach Ban and 75 m from the S side of Ceann Mara (NN 073 227).
(5) The island known as Càrn an Roin, 520 m E of Achnacarron and 74 m offshore (NN 065 223).
(6) The stony island known as Càrn Dubh, 490 m ENE of Inverinan and 10 m from the shore (NN 001 177).
(7) 115 m SW of Barr Phort and 975 m E of Cruachan (NM 963 104).
(8) Càrn Mhic Chealair, a small stony island 825 m SSE of Cruachan (NM 958 098).
(9) On the S side of the loch opposite St Conan's Church and 55 m from the shore (NN 121264).
(10) 760 m NW of Achlian (No. 302) and less than 100 m from the shore (NN 115 247).
(11) At the NE end of the small bay sheltered by the Inistrynich peninsula and 280 m ESE of Inistrynich (NN 108 235).
(12) 1 km NW of Keppochan and 45 m from the shore(NN 077 223).
(13) 170 m N of Rockhill and 10 m from the shore(NN 071 220).
(14) In a bay 550 m WSW of the Port Sonachan Hotel and 15 m from the shore (NN 042207).
(15) 425 m WSW of Ardchonnell, 290 m NNE of Innis Chonnell Castle (No. 292) and 170 m from the shore (NM 978 121).
(16) Close to the shore some 290 m N of Eredine (NM 968 097)
RCAHMS 1975.
