18 COLONSAY 



found, the Skylark (Uiseag), and the Land Rail or Corn 

 Crake (Tarritrean) in the adjacent meadows. The idea 

 that the Corn Crake passes the coldest of the months in 

 holes in dry banks still survives. In winter the whistle 

 of the Golden Plover (Feadag) is heard in the surrounding 

 fields and commons. 



On the north-western side of the island the hills overhang 

 the sea for some 3 miles, from Kiloran Bay to the Inbhear 

 in Kilchattan, in rugged, precipitous cliffs, rising here and 

 there in terraces, one above another, and interrupted at 

 intervals by chaotic accumulations of broken rocks, and by 

 deep and gloomy aoineadh's and slochd's. Most of this coast 

 is rock-bound, and inaccessible from the sea to all except the 

 daring and skilful lobster-fisher, who, to be successful in the 

 pursuit of his precarious calling, must know every treacherous 

 reef and every creek along the dangerous shore. North- 

 west of Kiloran Bay there are good examples of raised 

 beaches, platform-like in formation, and now forming the 

 arable land of the little crofts of Port-an-Tigh-mh6ir. 

 Judging from the antiquarian remains, this now secluded 

 part of the island had, in former times, been a settlement 

 of some importance. Ruins of fortifications and buildings 

 curiously circular in outline are to be seen on the headland 

 of Cailleach Uragaig and at Dun Tealtaig. Cill-a-Rubha 

 is the site of an old church and graveyard. A corn-mill 

 or muileann-dubh, driven by the overflow water from 

 Loch Sgoltaire, is said to have been at one time situated 

 below Bealach-a-Mhuilinn. The only indication now re- 

 maining of the existence of this structure is a fragment of 

 a small millstone. 



Westward, past Aoineadh-nam-Ba and the high precipice 

 of Geodha-gorm, is Aoineadh-nam-Muc, said in former times 

 to have been assigned by crofters as summer quarters for 

 their pigs to prevent them from roaming at large and damag- 



