Archaeological Evaluation

Date 2001

Event ID 1000727

Category Recording

Type Archaeological Evaluation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1000727

On Rough Island two sites, RI 2 (NG 4166 9825; NMRS NG 49 NW 8) and RI 41 (NG 4117 9829; NMRS NG 49 NW 2), were evaluated with small trenches to gain dating material.

Site RI 41 is located on the S coast of the island and is composed of an enclosure, massive stone platform and at least one circular stone-built hut. The construction of a modern sheep fank with associated enclosure walling appears to have severely damaged the earlier monuments. The original survey of the site encouraged a comparison with the platformed Neolithic site at Allt Chrisal on Barra. Three trenches were cut, one across the early enclosure wall and two next to the round hut on the platform. Again, only the upper peat soil was removed down to archaeological deposits, but the excavation produced abundant pottery, which is not comparable with any found so far on the islands (except for a single sherd at RI 2). It is hand-made, thick, gritty and friable, fired at a low temperature and is undecorated. Trenches 1 and 2 both revealed stone faces of internal walling belonging to two further huts. Within their compass the upper surface of collapsed walling and large flat roofing lintels were revealed. Trench 3, across the enclosure wall, showed it to be 2m wide with well-built external faces. The humped profile revealed in the section suggested that originally it may have attained considerable height. However, it is now thought that the platform is most likely a natural formation resulting from the collapse of the upper cliff face. The ceramics do not compare with other Neolithic pottery found in the Hebrides or with any of the material found so far on the Shiants, which reduces the possible date range of the material considerably. A Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age date is not out of the question, but the well-built rather massive enclosure wall may suggest an early medieval date and it is tempting to link the site with the 7th to 10th-century AD Early Christian cross stone found in the excavations on House Island last year (DES 2000, 95-6).

P Foster 2001