Canna, Tarbert

NG20NW 26 2381 0543

The present farmstead at Tarbert comprises three single-storey buildings, including a cottage and two long rectangular buildings, both of which have been barns. The buildings are all aligned from N to S and are of random rubble construction, although traces of harling still survive on the E wall of the cottage. The farmstead was abandoned by the early 1950s, and now only the larger barn remains roofed, the other having been reduced to wall-head height for use as a stall for animals. The cottage is also unroofed, but both gables are still standing, and a large mound of ash lies immediately to its NE.

Two other mounds are visible in the immediate vicinity: the first lies to the N of the cottage and measures 4.3m in diameter (NG 2380 0547); the second, which lies to the SE, is subrectangular on plan, and is probably the remains of a building measuring at least 5m from ENE to WSW by 4.5m (NG 2384 0540).

The three surviving buildings are those depicted as roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, sheet lix, 1881). Some 76 years earlier, two buildings and an adjoining enclosure are depicted at this site on an 1805 estate map of Canna. The first building is long and aligned from N to S, with the second smaller building at its NW angle; the enclosure is attached to its W, uphill, side.

(Canna 273-4).

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 5 April 1995.

J L Campbell 1984.