MHG21344 - Fishing village and crofting township - Port Henderson

Summary

Fishing village and crofting township at Port Henderson

Type and Period (2)

  • CROFTING TOWNSHIP (19th Century to 20th Century - 1801 AD? to 2000 AD?)
  • FISHING STATION (19th Century to 20th Century - 1801 AD? to 2000 AD?)

Protected Status

  • None recorded

Full Description

A crofting township comprising forty-five roofed, three partially roofed and twelve unroofed buildings is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Ross-shire 1881, sheet lvi). Thirty-eight roofed, three partially roofed and fifteen unroofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1968).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 25 April 1996

Thumbnail Photo of substantial building remains
Wester Ross Project - Cathy Dagg, 03/04

Created in 1815 as a fishing village by taking portions of the lands of South Erradale and Ardrishaig, later extended into a crofting township. ‘Streets’ of cottages along the foreshore, backed by small plots of land, indicate the original fishing village, while the grid pattern of crofting lots lies to east and west.
Wester Ross Project - Cathy Dagg, 23/03/04

Fishing village created by Hector MacKenzie in 1815 for 22 men. The village was set out as per Sir Hector's instruction in twos, with a pavement to the front and gardens to the the rear (still visible in two areas along the shoreline). The former salmon fishing bothy has been renovated and four ports (slipways) can still be seen.

Croft 22 includes part of the ruined fishing village and gardens of Port Henderson. A further continuation of the row of the village has been redeveloped as a garage and house that are still used (2011), and to the E two original buildings are still roofed and used as a holiday house and storage barn. There is also one remaining wall of the known boat builder's shed to be seen. In front of this a ruined slipway can just be detected. A local resident can remember when one of the children's summer tasks was to clear the four slipways in the township of boulders. (grid reference below is for Croft 22)

The first edition OS shows the row of the fishing village as partially unroofed with the boat builder's shed shown clearly at right angles to the houses for ease of launching the boats down the slipway. The 2nd edition OS shows a separate house by the shore known as 'Seacrest' and another at the S boundary of the croft known as 'Carnmore'. This house bunt down and a modern house was built to replace it to the N. The remaining wall of the original house is contained in a shed.

A detailed survey was undertaken in 2011 by Buchanan, J. Buchanan, M. and Macinnes, A. with research by Wentworth, R. and Malone, D. <1>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference Centred NG 7531 7378 (1739m by 918m)
Map sheet NG77SE
Geographical Area ROSS AND CROMARTY
Civil Parish GAIRLOCH

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (1)

External Links (1)

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