Archaeology Notes

Event ID 646380

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/646380

NB03NE 1 0855 3635.

(NB 0855 3635) Viking Burial found AD 1915 (NAT)

OS 6"map, (1965)

A 9th century Viking burial, accompanied by ornaments, including two tortoise brooches, and weapons, was found by school-children beneath a small sand mound about 150 yards west of Valtos school in April 1915. The burial lay 1 1/2' to 2' below the original surface and was exposed by the cutting away of the mound by cultivation.

The finds were presented to the Nicholson Institute, Stornoway, in whose museum there is also a pin of a bronze penannular brooch found near the site and which presumably belongs to the burial.

A belt mound was subsequently donated in 1934 to the National Museum of Antiquties of Scotland (NMAS).

D J Macleod 1916; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1934.

The site marked on OS 6"map,(1965) is incorrect, being on a very steep slope below the road. It is apparently derived from the description "150 yds to the W of the school" which is obviously an approximation. The find was apparently made in an area centred NB 085 363, in a cultivated patch about 60.0m to the N of the road, and to the S of the alleged dun (NB03NE 9), but there is no local knowledge of the exact find spot.

Visited by OS (R L) 27 June 1969.