Last week Derek Alexander (NTS) and I climbed up to Corrie na Cuilc to explore two sites recorded in the previous NTS survey of Glencoe (carried out in 1996 by Harden and Wordsworth). While we struggled to find the still site recorded by the previous survey, perhaps due to the low light (which never reached this North-facing corrie), differences in vegetation, or the movement of soil, rock or river in the last 20 years, we did identify the millstone they recorded which is so large it can actually be spotted in aerial photographs.
The millstone sits against a terrace in the lower slopes of the corrie, above the now deforested treeline of the Foresty Land Scotland ground below. The stone is formed of a large schist boulder, probably quarried from the talus slope of the corries base. A couple of nearby platforms in the slope may represent sites of quarrying for schist. The upper portion of Meall Mor (the hill which overlooks Gleann Leac na Muidhe, Achnacon and Inverigan) is formed of Glencoe Schist, while at lower levels the hills base particularly in Gleann Leac na Muidhe is of Ballachulish Limestone. The schist, particularly at high levels, is pocked with small dark inclusions of garnet, as well as the silvery plains of mica it is known for. This schist was clearly prized for the making of millstones, and querns, and a quern of a similar schist was found in the floor of the house excavated in Achtriachtan.
The millstone in this quarry was never finished, while the shape was roughed out, a hole carved in the centre and a cut started to begin cutting a series of millstones from the block an accident which took off one edge, and perhaps the natural fault which runs across its surface, led to its abandonment in this Corrie. One can imagine a certain frustration among those working the stone, though I can only imagine the effort involved to carefully bring a millstone of this size from Corrie na Cuilc to the mill site upstream of Invercoe.
By Edward Stewart
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