Alt a' Chlàdain

A fine camp site

The view shows the stream flowing from the spring marked on the map as Tobar a' Chnoic Ghlas. Looking south-east into the moorland on the southern flanks of the Oa.

This settlement is regarded as being the largest and best preserved of the numerous deserted settlements in The Oa area of Islay. It is believed to have been settled in from 1700 onwards but the remains still there today cannot be dated further back than 1800. It seems that the settlement was deserted by the third quarter of that century.

The name means 'big waterfall' but this was taken after a spell of dry weather!

This ruined cottage is situated on the south-east corner of the Oa peninsula. See NR3242 : Inveraval, Islay for photo of the renovated property.

A derelict farm on the Oa Peninsula.

Rocky gully near Rubha na h-Uamha, access only from the sea.

Well graded track that links a number of new properties on the east side of the Oa peninsula. Looking towards Rubh' a' Chlàdain.

Ruined settlement on the east side of the Oa peninsula. Islay was 'improved' in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with planned villages and a modernised farming system, but it is difficult to know if settlements like this were cleared or whether the people just drifted away.

Situated between the moor and the sea cliffs, this abandoned settlement must once have provided a living from agriculture. A ruined corn drying kiln stands nearby.

One of several sets of old settlements along the eastern side of the Oa. No sign of any chimneys on any of these ruins, so they may have been black houses.

Secluded sandy bay on the east side of the Oa.

All that now remains of an ancient chapel/monastery. The last visit by RCAHMS appears to be 1981 and there is even less remaining now. Information from Link Merest indications of the chapel walls appears above the turf. It has measured about 18ft by 8ft and stands in an enclosure about 60ft by 30ft. R C Graham 1895. The name of this chapel was first collected as "Cill a' Chobhain" and later changed to the published version. It may therefore be the "Kilachoan" planned by Mrs Lucy Ramsay before 1890 (Celoria 1959); and also the Kilchoan mentioned by Watson (1926) as deriving from Cill Chomtighain, the church of St Comgan, possibly an 8th century saint. There is a local tradition that it was a monastery (Celoria 1960). Name Book 1878; F Celoria 1959; 1960; W J Watson 1926; F Gold 1961. NR 3147 4115 The remains of a chapel measuring 9m north west-south east by 6m over walling 1m high and 1.5m wide is situated within a rectangular burial ground 25m by 10m. There is a probable entrance 0.6m wide in the north east side of the chapel. Surveyed at 1:10000. Visited by OS (BS) 3 June 1978. This chapel is situated on a south-facing hillside some 300m w of the boat-landing at Port Asabuis and at an elevation of 65m OD. Much of the surrounding land shows traces of rig-cultivation, and the remains of a small settlement are identifiable some 75m to the W, The chapel measures 6.3m from E to W by 3.1m transversely within walls about 1m in thickness which, although heather-grown, stand to a height of about 0.9m. Much of the masonry-facing survives, but there are no identifiable traces of mortar. The apparent narrowness of the entrance, which is placed towards the middle of the N wall, may be the result of tumbled masonry. The building stands within a subrectangular enclosure measuring about 24m from E to why 11m, which appears to have been subdivided by slighter walls in line with the E wall of the chapel. The boundary-wall is preserved in places to a height of 0.8m and displays several stretches of masonry facework. At the E end of the site, where the wall ran along the edge of a rocky scarp, it was supported by substantial stone revetments. The dedication of the chapel was probably to St Comgan. (Watson 1926) Visited March 1981 RCAHMS 1984