WoSAS Pin: 1493

Site Name: An Doirlinn, Eriska

Alternative Name(s):

Monument Type: Crannog

Council: Argyll and Bute

Parish: Ardchattan and Muckairn

Map Sheet: NM94SW

Grid Reference: 190110, 742390

Canmore Number: 23328

Non-Statutory Register Code: S

Site Report

WoSASPIN 1493
NM94SW 7 9011 4239.

(NM 90114239) Crannog (NR).

This crannog is situated below high-water mark on the south shore of Eriska. It is now a seaweed-covered stony mound about 20 metres in diameter and not more than 1 metre in height. The centre is disfigured by spoil heaps and a partly filled trench associated with an unfinished excavation in 1884 (R Munro 1885). This excavation showed that the crannog had rested on a circular timber substructure, about 18.3 metres in diameter, which consisted mainly of horizontal beams, radially disposed, with a certain amount of brushwood towards the centre. The perimeter had been defined by at least one row of beams round the circumference. Superimposed on this was a layer of stones and clay 0.9 metres deep from the surface of which charcoal, ashes and some burned animal bones were recovered, but no artifacts of any kind. There is no evidence to suggest that the crannog was ever linked to the island by means of a causeway.
RCAHMS 1975.

As described.
Visited by OS (RD) 4 November 1971.
Surveyed at 1:2500 scale.

Further Reading and Sources

Munro, R , 'Notice of an artificial mound or cairn, situated 50 yards within the tidal area on the shore of the Island of Eriska, Argyllshire', PSAS, Vol 19, 1884-5, pp.192-202.(1885)

RCAHMS , The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the ancient monuments: Vol 2: Lorn. Edinburgh.(1975)