Seil, Ballachuan
Cairn (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Site Name Seil, Ballachuan
Classification Cairn (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Cuan
Canmore ID 22622
Site Number NM71SE 13
NGR NM 751 146
NGR Description NM c. 751 146
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/22622
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilbrandon And Kilchattan
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NM71SE 13 c. 751 146.
NM 751 146. Oval cairn 10.06 by 7.01 metres, oriented E-W. Formed of rectangular boulders, each approximately 1.07 by 0.76 metres. Situated on raised beach.
C Leckie 1967.
Not located.
Visited by OS (DWR) 14 September 1971.
NM 751 146 Site included in an archaeological and historical survey.
R Regan, B Black and S Webb, 2004.
Field Visit (14 April 2022)
NM71SE 11 75151 12937
Sgeir Carnaich (Cairn Skerry) is the closest of a series of skerries off the NE coast of Luing, and it is accessible from the shore at low tide. The skerry is surmounted by a roughly oval cairn that measures about 15m from NE to SW by 12m transversely and about 1.2m in height, the great majority lying above the current high-water mark. There is no sign of a recognisable structure but the top is conspicuously level and measures 4.5m in diameter over a narrow lip of stone, perhaps indicating a recent use. A trial excavation undertaken in 2009 revealed a partially embedded timber, a sample of which was radiocarbon dated to 780 – 500BC (SUERC-26245) although the stratigraphic context of the timber was not established. The location of the test pit is still visible as an oval hollow on the SW side of the cairn*.
During the 1870s a local man, Hector McInnes, informed the OS that there ‘was a castle there at one time’ in reference to the skerry (OS Name Book 53, 163). However, the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map does not depict an antiquity showing only a simple circle (Argyllshire 1880, sheet cxxi). About 20 years later, William Macadam stated that ‘several heavy wooden beams are still visible’ (1896, 25). In 1966, the only timbers that could be identified were driftwood, and RCAHMS mooted the possibility that the site might be a burial cairn (1975, 55, No. 71; cf. NM94SW 11). To date there is no evidence that this island is partially or wholly artificial and a classification of cairn is most suitable given the likelihood of significant sea-level change (cf. NF77NE 15).
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (GF Geddes), 14 April 2022.
*The unpublished report by B L Andrian and T N Dixon was kindly shared with HES by M Braithwaite.