Loch Nam Miol, Mull

NM55SW 2 5185 5273

For logboats and boats found in the vicinity, see NM55SW 3.

(Name: NM 5192 5266) Crannog (NR)

(Dug-out Canoes found) (NAT)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

Crannog, Lochnameal: In an area of marshy ground, now largely forested, about 650m E of Lochnameal farmhouse there are the remains of a crannog. Formerly an island near the shore of Loch nam Miol, which was almost completely drained by Campbell (1871) shortly before 1870, the crannog survives as a partly grass-covered mound of boulders, roughly oval on plan and measuring approximately 14m from NW to SE by 9m transversely and about 1m high. The mound is situated on a rocky spine which rises 1m above the level of the surrounding ground, and there are no traces of a timber substructure. However, the stone causeway linking the crannog with the shore, which was found while the loch was being drained, rested on a foundation of oak trunks.

(NM55SW 3). A dug-out canoe of oak, 5.2m long and 1.1m across the beam, was discovered at the same time near the shoreward end of the causeway, and others, though of smaller size, were found near by. All have since been lost.

RCAHMS 1980; F Campbell 1871; J P MacLean 1923.

When seen in 1972, prior to the RCAHMS visit, the crannog was described as follows: 'At NM 5185 5273 are the well-preserved remains of a crannog situated on a rock outcrop now surrounded by marsh, except to the SE where the rock continues. The crannog would originally have been about 70m from the shore and is now about 3m above the level of the marsh.

It consists of a sub-oval turf-covered boulder platform, on which a near circular level area 6.8m NW-SE by 6.0m, delimited by intermittent paving stones, which probably represents the site of a dwelling. Around this runs a level platform on average 1.4m in width and up to 1.0m high, faced with rough coursing and vertical slabs. This platform diverges from the house on the N and SE; the SE projection leads to a platform 0.7m high and 1.5m wide, possibly representing a jetty. About 40m S of the crannog a ramp leads from the outcrop. It is 1.1m wide, about 5.0m long and up to 0.3m high. Its relationship to the site is uncertain. There is no trace of a causeway.'

(Though this crannog was surveyed at 1:2500, the plan was subsequently down-graded, and the detail has been omitted from 1:10,000 map.)

Visited by OS (D W R) 21 May 1972.