Archaeological Evaluation

Date May 2007

Event ID 579117

Category Recording

Type Archaeological Evaluation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/579117

NF 6561 0283 In May 2007 an evaluation was undertaken by Channel 4’s Time Team to investigate a number of cist graves and stone structures eroding out of the sand dunes. The aim of the evaluation was to investigate the nature of the burials and structures in a large sand dune blow-out, and to add to the results of an earlier rescue excavation by AOC Archaeology. The project also aimed to investigate a large earthen mound, said by local tradition to be a Viking burial mound.

The evaluation revealed stratified archaeological deposits potentially dating from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age. These included a possible Neolithic building and associated cultivation soil; a number of Early Bronze Age burials in stone-lined cists, including inhumations and cremations, radiocarbon dated to 1880–1520 BC; and two Iron Age roundhouses, the earliest dating to 750–400 BC.

Evidence of Late Iron Age activity sealed beneath the sand dunes was identified through a geophysical survey,

which revealed the well preserved remains of a very large wheelhouse, the largest yet found on Barra, and initially identified by CF Tebbutt in the 1950s.

Investigation into the possible Viking burial mound found no evidence of a boat or buried structures, and it appears that this is merely a sand dune.

Archive: Paper records to be deposited with RCAHMS; finds to be deposited (subject to SAFAP) at Museum nan Eilean, Stornoway

Funder: Videotext Communications Ltd

Steve Thompson (Wessex Archaeology - on behalf of Time Team), 2008