Stone Structures - 1

From Dave King

Dave has found a number of stone structures in the area around Sanna and south of the lighthouse.  He describes them, and gives his thoughts on what they may once have been.  Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Having taken the coastal route from Portuairk to Glendrian Caves, I was working my way back on a more inland route, and stumbled across this possible shelter.

Unfortunately I don’t have any GPS kit, so the grid ref of NM458693 in this terrain is going to be a little bit give or take, but it’s up against one of the southwest facing scarps on the east of the Allt Sanna, with about three courses of surviving stone wall in front and the possible indication of an entrance from the southeast. The wall doesn’t show up as well on the pictures as I would have hoped – the bracken is a bit too tall already.

As to purpose and age, I suppose that’s anyone’s guess. It’s possible that it might have been well situated for a higher sea level in the distant past, but on the other hand, the overhang is very limited, and it could just have been a fairly recent daytime shelter for a shepherd.

I stumbled across this small pile of stones while working my way inland from Glendrian Caves. They are in the shape of an elongated pear, with the wider and higher end to the north.

They’re quite a puzzle. They don’t look natural, but seem to be too small to be part of a structure. They do however sit on a small fairly level shelf, sheltered from the north and west by the small rise indicated by the contour lines on the map, and about ten metres to the north there is the slightest hint of an overgrown square/rectangular shape - this shows as the patches of heather in the background of this picture - which could conceivably turn out to be the base of another structure.

The grid reference I originally recorded was NM461698.  I’ve since had a go at creating a Google Map to show the locations of both structures, and I think it almost picks out the stones, but could do with having a clear definition at just one further level of zoom. The issue that I have with this is that it doesn’t tally with the grid references I recorded at the time – once again the pitfall of not having GPS.

There's an interactive map of the area here.

Many thanks to Dave King for pictures and story.