Built Heritage of the Slate Islands
Infrastructure
The high-arched Bridge across Clachan Sound is the most famous structure in the Slate Islands but is, at 231 years old, relatively new. Seil has always been separated from mainland Scotland by a channel shallow enough to be forded by people and animals. By 1787, the principal landowner, The Earl of Breadalbane, agreed to build a bridge, and a site was chosen. Builder and developer, John Stevenson of Oban, submitted a plan but it was rejected. However, he was contracted to undertake the work. The final design, which allowed continued passage underneath, for vessels up to 50 tons, was commissioned from an architect, Robert Mylne. The bridge was completed in 1792.
The infrastructure of the Slate Islands developed to meet the changing needs of access, fishing, agriculture, and industry. The Gaelic word, “Port”, as in Port nan Faoileann and Port Mor, often describes no more than a naturally sheltered bay.
The larger piers and jetties at Easdale, Balvicar, Cullipool, and Toberonochy, came with the dramatic rise of Slate Quarrying, between 1745 and 1900.
Easdale wooden pier at Ellenabeich, and the pier at Black Mill Bay, served steamers carrying passengers and freight as far as Glasgow, ‘till the 1940s.
The little harbour on the east coast of Ballachuan, served the mainly agricultural people living on the edge of the Hazel wood. It was for domestic-scale fishing and the export of coppiced Hazel and tiny quantities of lead; both to be had in the woodland. Preserved by its fairly remote location, it was probably one of many such local havens in the Slate Islands.
Over centuries, farms constructed land-drains and dry-stone walls, fanks, pens, and enclosures; often still used to this day. The waterway from Port Mor to Ballachuan Loch was deepened during the 19th century. It drains the fields in the long strath northwards, to Balvicar, and provides access to the loch for sea trout.
The present Kilbrandon Parish Church is above Ballachuan Loch, overlooking the site of St Brendan’s 5th Century cell and chapel. It replaced a church of 1735 at North Cuan, for which by 1864, the congregation had grown too large. A ruined arch in Balvicar old cemetery is the sole visible vestige of the 14th Century Kilbrandon Church, which served the Parish until 1735. Surrounding headstones, many of slate, record past residents interred over those 350 years and for 200 years thereafter.
The now roofless Covenanters’ Church, more properly called The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, dates from 1838. It borrows its popular name from the Covenanters of the 16th Century, with whom it had no direct connection, save a reputation for austere and vigorous piety.
Dwellings and Settlements
The first humans to inhabit the Islands must have sheltered in caves or very fragile and temporary structures. We have tangible evidence of these people, in the human remains found in Oban caves; but there is little evidence of any construction.
On the island of Lismore, about 15 miles north of Seil, is the well-preserved ruin of a “Broch” or round tower dwelling, dating from about 700BC, but thought to have been inhabited into the 13th century. So far, no “Brochs” have been identified in the slate Islands; but any such remains may have been plundered for later wall building.
“Beehive Dwellings” seem to have been contemporaneous with brochs, but much more widespread. Igloo-shaped buildings of random stones, they are the simplest and oldest form of stone structure, requiring only natural stones and some turf to waterproof the roof. There are two well-known and well-preserved examples on Eileach an Naoimh, in the Garvellachs. These were part of a 6th century monastery, but beehive ruins are ubiquitous in the islands, with surviving evidence on Luing and on Degnish.
“Roundhouses”, built perhaps from about 2000BC, of wood and turf, left few traces, save where the posts that formed their framework left the holes in the ground. Only in very stable ground could these traces survive for modern archaeologists to find; but such clues have been found on Luing.
In unsettled times, a roundhouse could be protected by a defensive wall of stones; or built within an existing fortification. Roundhouses were once very numerous, in the islands, Scottish mainland, and throughout Europe.
From about the 8th century early forms of the “longhouse” arrived, perhaps from the Viking connection. They were low, windowless dwellings housing people at one end and animals at the other. About that time the first smaller houses were perhaps a bit like the Hebridean “Black Houses”, with roofs of turf or rushes, and no gables. More rectangular and formal versions probably appeared from the 17th century, gradually evolving as the 19th century farmhouses that we still see today. Such evolution is gradual: the last black houses were occupied almost into the 20th century.
For over a thousand years before the rise of industrial quarrying, the Islands of Luing and Seil were agricultural in occupation and character. The people lived in scattered settlements or “Townships”, each one with a variety of dwellings, from houses to hovels, and supported by byres and barns in proportion to the size and quality of their land.
Some of these settlements occupied the sites of modern farms or houses.
Some of the visible ruins in the settlements of Seil and Luing are of 19th century gabled cottages, but many are of older “Black Houses” that had turf or thatch roofs.
On Seil, the Old Cemetery, and 14th century Church, mark the site of Balvicar township, now entirely ruined. Around and below the War Memorial, turf covered stones mark ruined buildings. At least one of those dwellings, west of the graveyard, was inhabited until after the First World War. It’s likely that the extensive quarrying, tramways, and new buildings have obscured other traces of the settlement between the cemetery and Balvicar Bay.
When, around 1750, the slate quarries began to be the principal employers, local workers lived in those originally agricultural dwellings; while incoming labourers were increasingly housed in informal and primitive shanties, close to the quarry workings.
Around 1820, new villages like Ellenabeich, Cullipool, and Belnahua, were built for the quarry workers and their families. However, most people on Seil and Luing, including many quarrymen, continued to live in the more rural locations, and to work, at least part-time, on the land. That relationship, between the villages and the land, endured until well after the Second World War, with more or less suburban dwellings proliferating after 1975.
Forts, Duns, and Castles
In place names, the Gaelic word “Dun” is used confusingly to describe either a hill or a fort. Perhaps because, in less peaceful times, almost any high place was a potential strong point. Confusion also arises because the remains of earlier duns, (fortified dwellings with near-vertical walls), were often converted later into forts. Indeed, a residential Broch of 800BC could become an uninhabited fort by 300BC, contain a roundhouse by 200BC, and be a fortified dwelling by AD500.
Ongoing modern archaeology is constantly revisiting conclusions reached by earlier studies. We must be cautious about being too certain. The Islands are rich in forts and duns, which can be seen in the remains of Dun Aorain and Dun Mucaig, on Seil, Dun Fadaidh, on Degnish, and on Luing, at Ballycastle and Leccamor.
The castles of Netherlorne are much more recent. Long described as a MacLean hunting lodge, the ruined Caisteal nan Con, on Torsa, is now thought to have been the vanity project of a minor Campbell in the 15th century. Ardfad Castle, also ruined, probably dates from the 16th century, and was a MacDougall stronghold.
Ardmaddy Castle shrouds its antiquity rather as do the forts and duns. The original 15th century fortified tower of McDougal of Raera was in great disrepair for some time before 1737. In that year, Colin Campbell, chamberlain of the Argyll Breadalbane Estate, almost concealed what remained behind his Palladian extension. More was added in 1790 and 1862, only to be removed in the late 20th century: returning Ardmaddy to a family home of largely Georgian appearance, but it earned its castle status, and not just with its hidden tower. Unrecorded, invisible, and unproven, is the likelihood that the rocky site of all these buildings was formerly occupied by some species of prehistoric fort: probably more than 2000 years ago.