Western Isles of Scotland. 



101 



This remarkable rock-shelf and its accompanying cliffs are best 

 preserved in Uragaig to the "west of Kiloran Bay (see Fig. 2). The 

 platform is here nearly half a mile "wide, and probably once extended 

 much farther seaward. Its inner angle beneath the magnificent cliffs 

 of Tornach Mor is about 135 feet above high-water mark of ordinary 

 spring tides. It can be traced from here round the west coast for 

 about a mile and a half to Port Ban, forming along this coast the 

 grassy platforms between the upper and lower cliffs known as Aonan 

 Ceann a' Gharraidh, Aonan nam Bo, Aonan Mhic Mhuirtean, and 

 Aonan nam Muc. 1 South of the last-named locality no sure trace of 

 it can be found along the cliffs as far as the south side of Binnein 

 ltiabhach. Here a great strip of the platform can be seen stretching 

 away inland towards Upper Kilchattan, although it is much denuded 

 and its inner margin is ill defined. South of Port Mor, however, the 

 old coastline is marked by a fine cliff forming the western faces of 

 Beinn nan Caorach and Sliabh Biabhach. The pass to the south 

 of the last-mentioned hill was a strait at the time of the formation of 

 the old shoreline, and the platform can be traced right through it to 

 Scalasaio- alono- the north side of the road. 



Fig. 2. 



Uragaig from the north side of Kiloran Bay, showing the cliff and rock- 

 platform of the 135 -foot preglacial raised beach." 



The higher parts of the southern half of Colonsay, with Beinn 

 Oronsay, formed at this period outstanding islands with a series of 



1 Aonan means a grassy pasture open to the sea, and surrounded by rocky 

 cliffs. It does not strictly imply " a step between the higher and lower cliffs ", 

 as stated by Mr. Symington Grieve, although it often is so. A small aonan, 

 the Aonan nam Clach Mora, north of the Cailleach Uragaig, is a grassy flat of 

 beach gravel surrounded by cliffs and lying only a little above high-water mark. 

 A former proprietor of the inn at Scalasaig, Mr. Donald M'Neill, being worried 

 by his guests as to the meaning of Aonan nam Muc, translated it for their 

 benefit as The Pig's Paradise, and by this name it has been commonly known 

 since. To Mr. Grieve belongs the credit of having first recognized that some of 

 the higher aonans along the west coast owe their origin to marine erosion ; he 

 does not, however, appear to have noticed that they are of preglacial age. See 

 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. v, p. 351, 1882-3. 



2 Figs. 2 and 3 are reproduced, by permission of the Controller of H.M. 

 Stationery Office, from the Geological Survey Memoir on Sheet 35, Scotland. 



