Creagan, Graffito

NM 990 450. About 1.6 km E of Creagan, the road that runs along the N side of Loch Creran crosses the twin tributaries of a small unnamed burn. If the easternmost branch is followed northwards for some 200 m up the steep face of Beinn Churalain, and beyond the point where it is first marked on the O.S. map, a . natural terrace is reached upon which there is a rock outcrop bearing an incised representation of a galley of the kind used in the Western Isles throughout the medieval period. The outcrop lies close to the E side of the burn, and 15m SE of a small cairn composed largely of white stones.

The galley (Fig. 248, Pl. 120B) is merely sketched and measures only 0.43 m in length by 0.42 m in height, but it is strikingly similar in essentials to the elaborately carved galley on the tomb built in 1528 for Alexander MacLeod in St Clement's Church at Rodel (Steer and Bannerman 1975, fig. 25). The high stem and stern, the stern rudder, the centrally-stepped mast supported by shrouds and stays, and the yard controlled by braces are all features of the Rodel boat, but in the present instance no sail is shown. Below the sketch the initials DS and the date 1729 have been incised, apparently with the same instrument as that employed to delineate the greater part of the vessel. This type of galley can hardly have survived, however, until the 18th century, and there are in fact indications that the graffito is of greater antiquity. As the photograph shows, the forestay running from the top of the mast to the stem-post is less distinct than the rest of the rigging, while on the hull there are faint traces of a group of letters beginning AST, the letter A being of the form with a V-shaped cross-bar which is commonly found in monumental inscriptions of the late-16th and 17th centuries. It seems probable, therefore, that the original sketch was made at a time when such galleys were still plying on Loch Creran, perhaps in the latter half of the 16th century, but that it was substantially re-cut in 1729.

The small cairn referred to above does not appear to be sepulchral, but may rather have been intended to mark a basin-shaped hollow, 0.30 m in diameter at the mouth and 0.25 m in depth, which has been excavated out of the rock at this point and which is covered by a stone lid worked into a circular shape. The purpose of this feature is not known.

RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1970.