Colonsay, Loch An Sgoltaire

NR 386 972. This early 17th-century artillery fortification stands upon the largest of a group of islands in Loch an Sgoltaire, a stretch of water that is surrounded by low hills and lies within easy reach of the NW coast of Colonsay at Uragaig. The surviving remains of the fort were modified and added to during the course of the 19th century when the island was used as a retreat by the owners of nearby Colonsay House, the most obvious result of this activity having been the erection of a small summer-house or arbour within the inner enclosure.

The layout of the fortification in its existing form can best be appreciated by reference to the accompanying plan. (See RCAHMS Inventory plan, 1984). It consists of a roughly concentric system of defence incorporating outer and inner thick-walled curtains. The outer enceinte is a pentagonal enclosure measuring 33m in maximum extent from E to W by over 30m from N to S. There are remains of roughly circular drum-bastions at all except the W salient, and a pair of partly rebuilt towers of this kind flank a round-arched entrance-gateway in the N sector. These reconstructed portions of walling exhibit traces of later lim mortar and lime pointing, but they are otherwise of drystone rubble construction with a pronounced batter on both faces of the curtain. The wall measures about 2m in average thickness at base, and the well-preserved NW and SW lengths of curtain survive to an external height of about 1.25m. The bastions vary between 4m and 5.5m in diameter, while the SE bastion, which has undergone later reconstruction, is of an elongated elliptical plan.

The N gateway and the E circuit of this outer enclosure skirt the water's edge, whilst the remainder of the island is circumscribed by a low stone kerb. Outside the fortified enclosure in the s half of the island there are vestiges of a rectangular walled enclosure incorporating an oblong sunken pit in the SE angle; the enclosure measures 11m in ascertainable length from N to S by 9m transversely within walls 0.6m in thickness.

The inner enceinte is a compact and irregular but approximately square enclosure, measuring about 15m from E to why 14m over opposite faces of the curtain-wall. It incorporates four rounded angle-bastions which are from 4m to 4.5m in diameter. The curtain-wall stands to a maximum external height of 2m along the N front, and is also about 2m in average thickness. A round-arched gateway with stepped approach and crenellated parapet above is located in the centre of the N wall, but much of the entrance and adjacent lengths of lime-pointed walling appear to have been reconstructed in the 19th century. Some of the bastions also possess a reconstructed 0.5m high crenellated parapet, the best-preserved outward-splayed crenelles being on the NW bastion. A narrow intramural stair gives access to the wall-head of the NE bastion, and in the diagonally opposite corner adjacent to the SW bastion there is a small 0.3m square aumbry of uncertain purpose.

The summer-house is a plain single-storeyed and hip-roofed building measuring 5.65m square. The principal or NE frontage has a central doorway with flanking windows and is surmounted by a rounded pediment; the rear or SW wall contains a central fireplace set between a pair of niches.

The site is well suited to the type of island-refuge that evidently prevailed in this region during the later medieval and post-medieval periods, but the surviving remains probably date substantially from the period of Sir James MacDonald's rebellion in 1615. A report of 26 June of that year recorded that upon his arrival on Colonsay a few days earlier Sir James 'maid ane strenth in it upon ane fresch wattir loch in ane eylanne', the design and construction of the fortification being similar to that erected in Loch Gorm, at about the same time.

Visited April 1978

RCAHMS 1984

RCAHMS surveyed the fortification on Loch an Sgoltaire in 1978. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 281).