Publication Account

Date 1988

Event ID 656068

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/656068

NF19NW 21.16 10019 99397

This drystone structure, a good example of a village cleit with a side entrance, stands in the area NW of the burial-ground. It is built within the plot formerly attached to House 11 and Black House O, its W wall forming part of the boundary of the adjacent strip associated with Black Houses P and Q.

The cleit stands on a gentle slope and is aligned N-S, the entrance being towards the N end of the W side-wall. The building is of an elongated subrectangular plan, straight-sided and round-angled, outside and inside. Externally, the walls are battered, and the roof, which consists of a covering of turf, earth and stones above a series of slab ceiling-lintels, has a rounded profile. There is what appears to be a small aumbrey over the inner face of the doorway. Internally, the walls are built mainly of medium-sized stones except at the S end where the masonry comprises larger blocks and a more open construction. The walls are corbelled and the ceiling-slabs have a clear span of 0.53m above a floor-level width of 0.99m. The interior is 5.62m in maximum length and the height above the existing floor-level is 1.27m. A more solid, probably stony, floor lies about 0.33m below the existing level.

G P Stell and M Harman 1988.