Canna, Beinn Tighe

About six ruinous shielings centred at NG 2552 0598.

Visited by OS (A A), 25 May 1972.

(Location amended to NG 2554 0599 and classification to huts, mounds, pottery and lazy-beds). A group of two huts, three mounds and two other structures lies in a shallow basin above an unnamed burn gully below Blar Beinn Tighe. The two huts are tucked into the base of a crag that marks the N side of the basin, the larger of the two being subrectangular on plan and measuring 2.3m from N to S by 1.6m transversely within a low stony bank spread up to 0.8m in thickness (NG 2556 0602); this hut appears to be set on top of a mound from which one sherd of pottery was recovered from the upcast of a rabbit scrape. The second hut is circular measuring 1.8m in diameter within a stony bank 1.2m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height (NG 2553 0602).

The remaining two mounds are both large and oval on plan and contain a considerable quantity of stones; both probably incorporate the remains of further huts. One is set on the line of a bank, which runs SE from the crag to the burn, although the relationship between the two is uncertain (NG 2563 0602). The other mound, which is slightly larger, measuring 10m by 8.6m and up to 1m in height, has a very dimpled surface with a lot of loose surface stones (NG 2554 0599). Several sherds of pottery and a flint chip were recovered from rabbit scrapes into this mound,.

Neither of the two other structures is particularly well-defined, the first having been severely damaged by rabbit burrowing and surviving only as an L-shaped earthen bank (NG 2555 0598). This lies about 10m to the ESE of the largest mound, the gap between the two containing faint traces of lazy-bed cultivation (NG20NE 109.02). The second structure, immediately to the S, is U-shaped and opens on to the basin from the SW (NG 2555 0597). It has been set in to the edge of a crag and measures 2m from NE to SW by 1.5m transversely within a low stony bank 1.1m in thickness.

(Canna 816-22).

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 10 April 1995.

NG 25524 05957 In April 2022 a walkover survey was carried out between the march dykes which separate the land around Beinn Tighe and Cnoc Mor from the surrounding uplands on Canna. This survey followed on from a survey carried out by the RCAHMS in the 1990s, which identified a number of possible shieling hut structures, and aimed firstly to record these features in detail with measured sketch plans and photographs, to identify any further features proximate to these clusters of activity and to record the general condition of the sites.

Over the course of this walkover survey, two main clusters of shieling huts were identified, one at NG 25281 05710 and a second higher cluster at NG 25558 05989. Around these, the shieling huts identified by the previous survey were re-recorded and a number of additional features were also identified including a system of enclosing dykes around these shieling clusters, and at the lower cluster, a storage hut and rectangular enclosure were identified. A couple of features identified by the previous survey were noted as having been eroded sufficiently by rabbit burrowing and soil movement as to now be uninterpretable. Of particular interest, the march dykes constructed between the uplands managed by individual townships represent an interesting feature in this upland landscape and bear similarities to features recently identified by the author at Cochno Hill in Kilpatrick parish.

Three sherds of prehistoric pottery were recovered from a rabbit

burrow within a large circular mound at NG 25311 05722 on top of which three small cell like shieling hut structures had been constructed.

Archive: NRHE, ADS, NTS

Funder: Scottish History endowment, CSCS and Archaeology at University of Glasgow

Edward Stewart – University of Glasgow