Excavation

Date 2013

Event ID 993370

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/993370

NR 3777 9152 Test excavations were undertaken at a ‘house’ platform below Dun Cholla over a three day period during Easter 2013. This project was part of a broader island wide survey of the historical landscape of Colonsay, funded by the AHRC as part of its Heritage Research for Communities programme, and involved the University of Ulster, Queen’s University Belfast, Kilmartin House Museum, Historic Scotland and The National Trust for Scotland working with the local community to investigate their historic past.

This site consists of a sub-rectangular earthwork measuring 13m long and 9.5m wide. It contains an internal area of c50m2 and appears to have two opposing entrances in the N and S wall respectively. An external ditch, possibly associated with drainage is located at the W gable. No other structural features are apparent but a set of lazy beds or cultivation ridges are present S of the site. A 2 x 4.5m trench was excavated inside the structure immediately E of the entrance features. A number of primary phases of activity were noted. A small shallow bowl furnace was located and predated the later construction of the house. The house was late medieval in character and finds included an early 17th-century gun flint. The house was probably abandoned by the early part of the 18th century.

Archive: University of Ulster

Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Colin Breen, University of Ulster, 2013

(Source: DES)