Note
Date 4 March 2016 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044092
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044092
Tradition held that the small precipitous island of Brei Holm, off the E coast of Papa Stour's SE peninsular, was the site of a leper colony, but Raymond Lamb identified this as one of a number monastic sites with a cluster of eight rectangular buildings likely to be of Norse date (1973; 1976); more recent evaluation trenches amongst these buildings have recovered evidence of complex occupation, and two radiocarbon dates indicate it was occupied in at least the 5th-7th centuries AD (Brady and Batey 2008). While not obviously a promontory fort now, a noted feature of the island is the remains of a bank running the length of the landward facade opposite the mainland of Papa Stour, a distance of about 130m, with a possible entrance opening into a cleft in the cliff-line above the strand of beach that now links the island to the mainland at low water. The island is riven with through sea-caves, which accounts for the origin of the channel that now separates it from the mainland, though at what date it became detached is unknown. Though the bank was not trenched and may yet turn out to be a more recent agricultural boundary, it is possible that the occupation of this island originates as a fortified promontory; its interior covers an irregular area currently measuring 120m from N to S by 100m transversely (0.6ha), and was doubtless once rather larger. The grass-grown stone footings of a cluster of eight sub-rectangular buildings are visible on the top of the island.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4197
