Archaeology Notes

Event ID 645361

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645361

HY44NW 32 4389 4905.

HY 4389 4905. A low irregular mound in pasture at 20m OD to N of the Pierowall, was partially excavated in 1981 in advance of quarrying operations. The limited excavation showed that the mound contained the remains of an Early Iron Age settlement of the 1st and 2nd millennium which had destroyed all but the lowest metre or so of an underlying chambered cairn.(Confirmed by A S Henshall).

Attention to the site had been drawn by the discovery of a large decorated stone (1.30 x 0.41 x 0.52m) thought to have come from approximately where the cairn passage would have passed through the inner wall-face, and thus it may have been a passage lintel. It was found in two pieces, decorated with two pairs of spirals, concentric rings and other motifs, closely related to Irish megalithic art (cf: Newgrange). Two smaller decorated stones were found in the quarry dumps. Only a small part of the SE side of the cairn was exposed. The estimated diameter was about 18m edged by a revetment wall-face which stood up to 1m high in 14 courses; the bottom course was of very large slabs projecting about 0.1m. About 1.8m behind this was a second wall giving an estimated diameter of about 14m, and standing about 0.7m high in 8 courses. SSW of the estimated centre of the cairn, the core butted against two large slabs about 0.6m apart which were interpreted as part of a passage.

Immediately S of the wall-face the spread of rubble from the cairn was interrupted by the formation of a secondary platform on which had been built a rectangular structure dated to the late 3rd millennium and asssociated with Grooved Ware sherds. At about the same time, the cairn was levelled and the outer wall-face and rubble behind it were paved over at a height of 1.1m above ground surface. Subsequently, after a period of abandonment a stone round house was built just within and concentric with the outer face of the underlying cairn. The interior of the round house was at a lower level than its outer wall and had been dug into the remains of the cairn. A large flint assemblage and human & animal bones were also found at the site.

In 1983 only the base courses of the SE arcs of the wall-face of the cairn were to be seen, and the profile of the mound in the quarry section.

Full report forthcoming.(Interim report 1981 (SDD, IAM).

Visited by OS (JLD) 11 May 1983.