A shallow lochan on the Rubha an Dunain headland in the southwest of Skye, Loch na h-Airde is located 3¾ miles (6 km) south southwest of Glenbrittle. This freshwater loch is connected to the sea (Soay Sound) by a canal that forms part of a culturally-important Viking harbour complex, which was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 2017.
The canal is around 120m / 390 feet in length and 3.5m / 11 feet wide, is lined by stone and was most-likely created by widening the natural outfall of the loch. There was a sluice or tide-mill within the canal. Adjacent, there is evidence of two boat-building docks, boat shelters (noosts) and associated buildings. The boats built and maintained here were birlinns and a wooden cross-beam from one of these was found in the loch and dated to the 12th C. Other archaeological monuments in the vicinity confirm settlement here in the Neolithic and Iron Age, and may have continued to as recently as the 18th C.
