Island Of Danna, Port Nan Gallan, Limekiln And Store

This small industrial complex is situated on the E shore of Loch na Cille, at the highest point where deep water is accessible at all states of the tide. Much of the tidal island of Danna is composed of limestone, which has been quarried at various places N of New Danna farmhouse. A large quarry in the cliff-face 150m to the SSE is linked to the kiln by a track.

The existing structures date from the last decade of the 18th century, when Danna belonged to the Taynish and Ross estate of Commissary Duncan Campbell. The lime-kiln probably existed by 1794, when the labour-services of local tenants were used to carry lime and fuel. The adjacent storehouse was constructed in 1795, bricks being transported for 'the arch of the lime house' in the autumn of that year. At the same period an adjacent area of arable ground was enclosed and included in the lease of the lime-works. The production of lime continued throughout the 19th century (en.1).

The double kiln is roughly rectangular on plan, measuring 7.8m from N to S by 5.lm, and about 4m in height, and its masonry is of mortared rubble. It was built against higher ground to the W, where there is a revetted ramp to the kilnhead. Of the two loading-mouths, that to the N was rebuilt as a brick-lined rectangle with rounded corners, probably in the late 19th century, while the other was filled in at the same period. The two draw hole-recesses in the E wall each measure 2m in both width and depth, the sides being corbelled inwards to a width of 0.6m at a height of 2.lm. The N draw hole has a brick-built arch 0.46m wide, but the other, now blocked, appears to have had a rubble lintel.

Some 8m N of the kiln, and linked to it by a screen-wall which forms the W side of a small courtyard, there is a two-storeyed building measuring 14.2m from N to S by 7.4m. Its masonry is of lime-mortared rubble, cement-rendered except in the lower part of the S wall, and the roof is slated, with gable chimneys. The ground floor has no openings except for segmental-arched loading-doors, 1.8m and 2.4m in respective width, in the N and S gable-walls. It is roofed with a segmental brick vault 5.6m in span and about 3m in height, and the floor is of earth. There is no evidence of any partition, and the room was probably used as a store for lime awaiting shipment. The upper floor, approached by a forestair on the E, has three openings in each of the side-walls and has been remodelled for domestic use. A two-roomed outhouse built against the E wall and forestair incorporates in its S wall a blocked archway 2.3m wide, resembling that in the adjacent wall of the storehouse, but the structure has been much altered.

Port nan Gallan, the small bay E of the storehouse, is still used for mooring and beaching small boats, but jetties have also been built at various times on the rocky promontory bounding it to the NW. The oldest of these, dating probably from the early 19th century and now very ruinous, is at the NW angle of the promontory and 20m NW of the storehouse. It measured about 20m in length by 6m, and the W wall, which is battered in profile, is built with large vertical slabs.

RCAHMS 1992, visited August 1984