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

1) Description, locality and name
derivation
Port Henderson is a township on the
south coast of Loch Gairloch and is
part of the land owned by the
MacKenzies, the lairds of Gairloch,
now of Flowerdale House and Conan
House, Conon Bridge. To its south are
the crofting townships of Opinan and
South Erradale and to its east is the
very small settlement of Badantionail (‘clump of the gathering’ OSR) and the larger village of
Badachro (‘lump of the cattle fold’ OSR) which in its early years was a fishing community and a
farming area, with two large farms, Aird Farm and Badachro Farm. Like other crofting townships in
the Gairloch area Port Henderson is divided into two sections, the in-bye land, the croft area within the
township boundary, and the common grazing area where crofters have the right to graze livestock. (See
later for more information - pages 96/97).
The name Port Henderson doesn’t appear on any of the old maps. The first time it was written on
a map was on the Gairloch Estate Plan of 1844 but the 1841 census also denoted the village as
‘Port<strong>henderson</strong>’ with a population of 132 (also see below for the OPRs for Gairloch). In Gaelic the
Carr Point
name translates to Portigill or Portaigil and may be derived
from Port a geal, the ‘white <strong>port</strong>’. However, Ainslie’s Map of
1790 and Campbell’s Map of 1790 show the name ‘Capuchar’
in the position of Port Henderson. New Marine Chart of 1794
and Heather’s Marine Chart of 1804 have ‘Coupachar’ whilst
the Admiralty Chart of 1849 - 51 has ‘Carr Pt (Point)’ and ‘P.
Anderson’. In Gaelic ‘Carr Point’ is Sròin a’ Char/Sròn na
Carra (the point of the projecting rock) and this can be
seen as a prominent headland, consisting of flat rock slabs
projecting into the sea where the coastline turns east into
Loch Gairloch, with a rounded knoll behind. By the time
the Admiralty Chart for the area was drawn up the Port
Henderson crofting township had been established and the
map shows this in relation to the main road and includes
some indications of the croft boundaries. The name
Ainslie's Map of 1790
‘Anderson’ might have been a misre<strong>present</strong>ation of the
word ‘Henderson’. (See p. 18 and p. 103 for further suggestions re the village's name).
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