Sanday, An T-oban, 'cairns'
Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Structure(S) (Period Unassigned), Wall(S) (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery
Site Name Sanday, An T-oban, 'cairns'
Classification Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Structure(S) (Period Unassigned), Wall(S) (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery
Alternative Name(s) Canna
Canmore ID 10759
Site Number NG20SE 5
NGR NG 2829 0415
NGR Description Centred NG 2829 0415
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10759
- Council Highland
- Parish Small Isles
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG20SE 5 centred 2829 0415
Four cairns seemingly linked by a drystone wall (NG 2823 0909) and two isolated cairns (NG 2806 0919) occur on the S side of Sanday, almost due S of Canna pier, at Ant-Oban overlooking Camas Danabhaig. They are roughly oval and vary in length from 10-23ft, and in breadth from 8-17ft, the major axis usually being NE and SW (RCAHMS 1928).
One of the isolated cairns was excavated in 1924. Finds included coarse potsherds of a class found in kitchen-middens and brochs in the W of Scotland; flint chips, including a thumb-scraper,; a limpet-hammer; pumice and minute fragments of burnt bone not certainly human (T C Lethbridge 1925).
T C Lethbridge 1925; RCAHMS 1928; Private 6" map, annotated by T C Lethbridge, 1953.
Centred at NG 2827 0415 on a NW-facing slope below a low crag are four turf-covered stony mounds, each about 15.0m apart, three of them linked by the remnants of a wall. The dimensions are generally as described by the RCAHMS.
Lethbridge's excavation is still plainly visible in the mound directly under the crag and not in one of the 'isolated cairns'. These are not cairns they are almost certainly the ruins of old bothies.
The 'two isolated cairns' noted by the RCAHMS are at NG 2851 0409.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (I S S) 30 May 1972.
Field Visit (6 July 1925)
Cairns.
The valley due south of Rudha Langaninnis contains a group of small cairns. The group consists of three cairns in alignment and seemingly linked by a drystone wall. Four cairns similarly associated with a stone wall and two isolated cairns occur at Ant-Oban overlooking Camas Danabhaig. One of the isolated cairns has been excavated. See Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LIX., p. 238.The cairns are roughly oval and vary in length from 10 to 23 feet, and in breadth from 8 to 17 feet, the major axis usually being north-east and south-west.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 6 July 1925.
OS map: Island of Canna liii and liv; and Islands of Rum, Sanday, etc. (Inverness-shire), lx (unnoted).
Field Visit (30 May 1972)
Centred at NG 2827 0415 on a NW-facing slope below a low crag are four turf-covered stony mounds, each about 15.0m apart, three of them linked by the remnants of a wall. The dimensions are generally as described by the RCAHMS.
Lethbridge's excavation is still plainly visible in the mound directly under the crag and not in one of the 'isolated cairns'. These are not cairns they are almost certainly the ruins of old bothies.
The 'two isolated cairns' noted by the RCAHMS are at NG 2851 0409.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (I S S) 30 May 1972.
Field Visit (6 June 1994)
(Location amended to centred NG 2829 0415). An area of gently sloping ground below a rocky crag to the S of An t-Oban is occupied by four huts, two earthen mounds, three narrow rectangular structures, several stretches of ruinous stone walls and a small patch of lazy-bed cultivation (NG20SE 83.02). The huts are undoubtedly the group of four cairns reported by RCAHMS in 1928, two of which lie on the line of an old stone wall. Three are subrectangular on plan, the smallest (NG 2826 0415) measuring 4.6m ENE to WSW by 4m transversely over a faced rubble wall 0.8m in thickness and 0.4m in height, while the largest measures 7.4m from N to S by 5.3m over a wall of similar dimensions; pottery sherds were recovered from an eroded section in the former.
The fourth hut (NG 2826 0413), which lies on the line of the old stone wall below the crag, comprises two cells, and three courses of its faced rubble wall can still be seen. The two low mounds lie immediately to the N of the huts and both have slight dimples at their centres.
The three narrow structures are all connected to stretches of the old stone walls and are defined by parallel rows of boulders set on edge. Two appear to have one end left open, while the ends and W side of the other have been disturbed. The largest of the three measures 6.1m from ENE to WSW by 1.6m transversely overall.
(Canna 381-8, 680).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 6 June 1994.
Field Visit (9 May 2001)
Pottery sherds were recovered from rabbit scrapes into two of the huts during fieldwork in May 2001 (NG 2826 0415 and NG 2828 0414). The hut located at NG 2826 0415 had yielded pottery in 1996.
(Finds to be deposited in the NMS).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, SPH), 9 May 2001.
