port henderson : past & present - Royal Commission on the Ancient ...

To the west of the lochs Wentworth describes a steep and rocky knoll, Cnoc a’ Chomharraich
and under this outcrop of rock were the ruins of a house that Seonachán lived in. Seonachán, or John,
was a shepherd. Local information states that John (son of a Finlay MacLean) was an Opinan shepherd
and the ruins are within the Opinan township. However, against a bank of rocks within the Port
Henderson common grazing is a sheltered and protected part where there are traces of what might be
blackened areas, maybe from fire. This is known locally as the ‘chimney’. (Children in the
1950s/1960s used to make fires in this area according to a former resident).
Just outside Gairloch on the road from Poolewe there is a large
boulder called the ‘Shoe Stone’ where walkers to church in Gairloch
would stop in order to put on their shoes. In Port Henderson there is the
‘Stone of the Urine’, Clach an Fhuail, because it was a convenient
place for people walking along the road to stop for the call of nature!
This rock can still be seen but today it is enclosed in a front garden of a
bungalow situated on an ap<strong>port</strong>ionment of croft 10.
The 'urine' stone
On the shore to the east of the ruins at Port a’ Sgùmán there is a
rock outcrop called a’ Chreag Mhaol, the ‘bare rock’, (OSR) which extends for about 50 metres along
the shore and which is about six metres high above the low tide line. Its tip is cut off by a narrow sea
channel, around three to four metres, through which, it is said, a dinghy could pass except when the
tide was at its lowest. About 100 metres to the east of this rock is a row of flat, sloping rocks at the
bottom of the beach. More rock slabs and a small rock pinnacle can be seen at very low tide. These are
the ‘little skerries’, na Sgeirean Beaga. There are slight indications of a dinghy beaching place in a
stretch of shingle about 20 metres to the east of these rock slabs. This was once used for fishing boats
and is called Port Alasdair Dhuinn, or ‘brown(-haired) Alasdair’s <strong>port</strong>’. Wentworth gives no indication
as to who was Alasdair and locally no-one has any further information. Achlais a’ Sgùmán, the ‘oxter’
or ‘armpit’, is an anchorage which was once well-used by the boats in this area of Port Henderson.
Another <strong>port</strong> in this area is named Port an t-Seada, the ‘Port of the Shed’. The beaching place
for a small boat or dinghy is still visible from the shore that has been cleared of stones. It gained its
name because it is opposite the site where there was once a
boat-building shed belonging to Roderick MacKenzie. These
MacKenzies lived on croft 15 (but from 1900 they also paid rent
for croft 12, see pp. 20/45/48/49). (Also see p.14 for the story of
Roderick MacKenzie and the mermaid).
There is yet another beaching place which is still visible
as a narrow slipway, once cleared of stones, and about 130
A beaching place
metres to the north of Port an t-Seada. This is called the ‘little
<strong>port</strong>’, Am Port Beag. (In recent gales many stones were washed up making this <strong>port</strong> unusable).
Just behind this beach there is an area covered with bracken and grassy knolls which were once
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