Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Camas nan Geall

An idyllic south-facing haven on Loch Sunart. A glen rich in history from a Neolithic chambered cairn and standing stone to a 19th-century deserted settlement.

Bronze Age standing stone in the Cladh Chiarain burial ground
The engravings, a cross with a dog above and above that another smaller cross, are attributed to the time of the founding of the monastery at Iona in the 6th-century.

In 1737, when Ardnamurchan was sold by the Duke of Argyll to Alexander Murray, Lord Stanhope, the settlement of Camas nan Geall had a population of 35: 9 men, 13 women, and 13 children. And between them, they had approximately 72 cattle, 72 sheep, and 18 horses. In 1828, the glen was cleared to let as a sheep farm, several buildings are associated with this time including the farmhouse near the burn. There may have been some other farm-hands living in the glen.

By 1872, with the sheep farm failing the depopulation of the glen was complete. Today the solitary large field is used for the production of silage, protected by a large deer fence.

The photo shows some of the ruins of the pre-19th-century cottages. Much of the stone has been robbed for re-use in later buildings and a sheepfold.




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