Colonsay, Riasg Buidhe

NR49NW 26.0 406 955.

The ruins of this 19th-century fishing settlement lie close to the E coast of Colonsay about 1.7km NE of Scalsaig harbour. The main group of buildings comprises a continuous range which incorporates the remains of eight single-storeyed domestic and agricultural units. The dwellings at the upper or W end of the range have projecting chimneyed fireplaces of secondary construction, whose flues penetrate the adjacent gables only at the apices. Some of the buildings retain traces of high-level cruck-slots, and at least one fragment of a wall-post is preserved in the SE side-wall.

The nearby chapel and burial-ground, with their associated cross-slab of Early Christian date, provide indirect evidence of more ancient settlement in this vicinity, bu there are no identifiable remains earlier than the 18th or 19th centuries. Riasg Buidhe was abandoned in 1918 and the community was rehoused at Glas Aird to the SW (Loder, 189). An early-20th century photograph shows that at that date the two upper cottages had roofs of tarred felt and the remainder were thatched (Photographs in NMRS. Mr Peter McAlister, Scalasaig, a former occupant, confirmed that the thatch was mainly of bent grass from Kiloran, or preferably Oronsay, which was considered to be more durable).

RCAHMS 1984, visited by RCAHMS April 1978.