Gigha and Cara Table

Saule

Saule is consistently mentioned in the lists of Gigha farms from 1539. It is always given after Druimyeonbeg and before Druimachro. The trouble is that these lists do not run in a coherent geographical order. It is usually the case that 13 farms are given. The first 7 run north-south down the west side of Gigha. After that the farms are disordered and we cannot use the list position to fix Saule’s location on the ground. Moreover it is the only one of the 13 which does not appear on McDougall’s map of 1747. The only place-name on today’s map which looks relevant is Cnoc an t-Sabhail in NR 6653. Since Kinerarach was one of Gigha’s largest farms in McDougal’s survey it may well have absorbed Saule by that stage. (Blaeu’s Balmoir could be Saule). However Philip (p 26) thinks Saule was possibly South Drumcrow.

Cara

Our earliest evidence for the value of Cara comes in RMS VIII (545) of 1623 (on an original of 1622). The Bishop of the Isles gave it to William Stirling and the context suggests it must have been a property of Iona’s or Ardchattan’s. Given that there is a ‘Poll an Aba’ (Abbot’s Pool) in Cara and Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections II p 188 (based, probably, on Pont’s work before 1600) says that Cara chapel belonged to Iona I think we can discount Ardchattan. We also have references in 1456 to the ‘portum monachi’ (Monk’s port) in Cara. (Mackintosh Muniments pp 1-2 with corrections in Munro, ALI, pp 90-6). Cara is mentioned in a tax roll of the Bishop of the Isles dated 1636 (E60/7/3) and again the context is firmly Iona. OPS II, I p 301 gives another tax roll of 1665 which also includes Carra.

The map and notes on pages 146-7 of Argyll Vol IV deal with Iona’s possessions but do not include Cara. There are only two properties which belonged to the monastery in 1203 which cannot be identified – Calve and Herilnean. The latter is probably Laintymanniche in Islay (q.v.) which only leaves the island of Calve. Argyll IV suggests Eilean Chalbha off Mull but I do not think this is likely given the order in which the islands are listed in 1203. There are several islands called Calvay (or similar) in the Hebrides or along the west coast but none of them seem convincing. Is Calve the same as Cara? Certainly Cara seems to have belonged to Iona and is not otherwise listed in the 1203 document which confirmed the monastery’s possessions. Certainly Cara could be described as the ‘Calf’ of Gigha – as in Calf of Man etc. It is possible that Calve was either a former or an alternative name for Cara but unfortunately we must leave the question unproven.