project ref : 009
location : Rubha Beag (NE corner of Rubha Mòr peninsula), Opinan
grid ref : centred on NG 885 973
category : fishing station?, fishing-related activity (industry), with cultivated fields
features : buildings, enclosure, cultivation rigs, walls, boat nausts, slipway, fish trap?,
Difficult to describe or categorise this small settlement.
Two buildings and stone walls, probably related to fishing are situated on a tidal section at the mouth of the Allt Loch a’ Choire river, near Opinan.
Rubha Beag
At the end of a track from Mellon Udrgle, beside the Allt Loch a’ Choire river mouth.
Much of the area is shingle, some of which is covered by a thin layer of soil and vegetation.
The ‘estuary’ is broad, but very shallow and at low water the river only occupies a narrow channel.
The site is composed of an unusual collection of features:
1. at the extreme high water level there are two buildings at right angles to each other, with one about 1m above a slope (see cross-sections).
2. walls stretching from the two buildings, one meandering along the shore-line and another extending out into the river from a stone-edged platform.
3. a series of crude boat shelters (nausts) cut into a natural slope.
4. a cleared slipway on shingle shore.
5. two hollows created in the shingle
6. several small structures of unknown use.
7. partly enclosed cultivated fields - one large area of rig & furrow and a smaller area of rig & furrow. The large area has a small bank & ditch enclosure boundary.
Two cross-sections, one through the platform & buildings and one through a boat shelter (naust).
Most of the area (with the walls and structures) is composed of a shingle bank, with only a thin layer of soil and vegetation covering much of it.
