Print

MHG53615 - Boat Naust - W of Alisary, Loch Ailort, Moidart

Summary

A boat naust was surveyed and recorded in detail in a small sheltered bay on the south-western shore of Loch Ailort at Alisary.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

A boat naust was recorded in a small sheltered bay on the south-western shore of Loch Ailort during a survey project conducted by Moidart History Group as part of Scotland's Rural Past. Not easily visible from the nearby main road and infrequently visited, the naust is far more obvious when the summer vegetation is not present. It lies aligned almost north-south, with the bow end to the south. Overgrown with short grass, it lies in a shallow, grass-covered gully, with 10m of boggy machair separating the entrance of the naust from the stony foreshore. The gully is flanked on both sides by 3m high ridges of bedrock, forming a very protected spot off an already-sheltered bay.

The naust is 9m long from the stem to the machair, although it is likely to have been a metre or so longer before any erosion, and it could have accommodated a boat of considerable width - the visible width is 2.5m but this would probably have contained only the lower chines of a boat. The depth of the naust at the two deepest points is 0.65m and 0.45m respectively. The stem of the keel would have been some 0.75m above high tide level and the stern at sea level.

The naust probably dates to the mid 19th-century, although the design and usage was probably influenced by long-inherited practice. There was no vehicular road alongside the shore of Loch Ailort until 1967 – before this, travel and trade up and down to the loch side settlements was by sea.

Immediately inland are very old cultivation rigs, and the ruins of Alisary village, shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey maps (1873) as roofless, are about 400m to the east. <1>

Sources/Archives (1)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NM 7398 7962 (50m by 50m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NM77NW
Civil Parish	ARISAIG AND MOIDART
Geographical Area	LOCHABER

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (1)

External Links (1)