We returned to our kayaks from the abandoned settlement on Isle Macaskin. We had left them on the little landing channel that had been laboriously cleared of boulders by the former inhabitants.
We paddled up the SE coast of Macaskin and passed these ancient kilns. I have seen similar kilns on the Isle of Lismore (some 48km to the NNE), which date from the 1800s. The Lismore kilns were lime kilns and as Macaskin is relatively fertile, compared with other islands on acidic rocks, it is possible these are also lime kilns. They could however, be corn kilns.
12/02/2008
Hi Douglas, I see we landed at spots just a couple of hundred metres apart on Isle Macaskin.
ReplyDeleteThe map in Hamish Haswell Smith's book labels the kilns as limekilns but he doesn't offer any evidence for that or say anything else about them. The few references I've found on the web also describe them as limekilns but again don't offer any further information.
Andrea.
Hello Andrea, it was a wonderful spot!
ReplyDeleteThe reason I queried the function of the kilns was that I could see no evidence of limestone round the coast of Macaskin nor could I find any source of geological information that said that limestone exists on Macaskin.
In a document on www.scotlandsruralpast.org.uk/
I discovered this guidance about interpreting the function of kilns discovered on field studies:
"Corn drying kilns are often wrongly described as ‘lime kilns’ on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey maps."
Thanks for that link Douglas. Lots of interesting stuff there to keep me from the housework.
ReplyDeleteAndrea.