Archaeology Notes
Event ID 657156
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/657156
NF72SW 1 7337 2022
(NF 7337 2022) Wheelhouse Bruthach Sitheanach
OS 6" map, annotated by A L F Rivet (Assistant Archaeology Officer)
At Kilpheder, South Uist, on a site called Bruthach a' Sithean or Bruthach Sitheanach, (the Brae of the Fairy Hill), a well-preserved aisled wheel-house was excavated by Lethbridge in 1951-2.
Objects found include pottery, bronze and iron pins, etc. An R.B. trumpet brooch, dated by R G Collingwood to the mid-2nd c. AD., was probably left behind on a ledge about 200 AD. (a date deduced by Lethbridge) when the building was abandoned.
Connected with the site are middens 150 yards and 350 yards south-west and 200 yards south-east (See NF71NW 10 & 11) One yielded a long-handled weaving comb.
The finds were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).
T C Lethbridge 1952; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1961; R W Feachem 1963.
(Area NF 732 202) Group of several wheelhouses, (one partly excavated 1951), extensive middens etc.
(undated) information from R W Feachem.
The remains of this aisled round-house are as planned and illustrated by Lethbridge, although several of the stone piers have collapsed. The walls stand to an average height of 2.4m. The hearth can just be discerned as a few stones protruding from the turf.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
No trace was found of the middens associated with the site or of other wheelhouses in the area.
Visited by OS (W D J), 6 May 1965.
The trumpet brooch is Roman, late 2nd century AD.
A S Robertson 1970.
NF 733 336-NF 758 140 Almost half of the South Uist machair has been surveyed between 1993 and 1995, in a single stretch from West Kilbride in the extreme S of the island to the N of the Ard Michael promontory, a distance of 20km with the width of the machair averaging about 1km (see unpublished reports, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield). Existing RCAHMS records for prehistoric and early historic settlement sites number some 20 locations within this zone. The machair project has now increased this number to 81. Two of the RCAHMS sites, the broch/dun at Orosay (NF71NW 5) and the broch of Dun Ruaidh (NF72SW 7), are misidentifications.
The area most responsive to field survey on the machair is the section between Kildonan and Stoneybridge, the N 5km portion of the survey area. Here, where most of the surviving machair plain has not been covered by dunes, some 44 sites have been recognised. along with a grouping of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age settlement mounds in the Kildonan area, the main settlement pattern is a set of clusters of Iron Age to Viking Age settlement mounds for each of the five townships. These Iron Age-Viking Age clusters may be viewed as predecessors to the township system first mapped in 1805 and still in use today.
A second concentration of sites has been found further S in the machair of Daliburgh and Kilpheder, where a total of 19 sites have been discovered in an area of 3 square kilometres. This density is all the more remarkable given the large extent of dune incursion on to the machair plain in this area. Within this zone two key house sites, both well preserved, have been excavated. One is Kilpheder wheelhouse (NF 7337 2022) of Middle Iron Age date and the other is the Cladh Hallan double roundhouse (NF72SW 17) of Late Bronze Age date. The most remarkable feature of prehistoric settlement in this area is the 500m long string of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement W of the modern cemetery. However, there is considerable potential for good preservation, as indicated by the 1994-95 excavations.
The results of the recent survey are by no means exhaustive but they do indicate a remarkable density of later prehistoric and early historic settlements on the machair. The pattern of proto-townships throughout the survey area holds reasonably well but there are gaps for the townships of Garrynamonie and Garryheillie.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland.
M Parker Pearson 1995.
NF 764 474 to NF 758 140 The South Uist machair has been surveyed between 1993-1996, from Cille Bhrighde (West Kilbride) in the extreme S of the island to Baile Gharbhaidh (Balgarva) at the N end of the island, a distance of 35km. This year, the number of known prehistoric and Early Historic settlement sites has now increased from 81 to 176.
The continuing pattern of Iron Age-Viking Age settlement clusters along the machair supports the hypothesis of 'proto-townships'; that the system of land allotment amongst the townships is essentially an Iron Age phenomenon which survived substantially intact until the Clearances of the early 19th century (see unpublished reports, Sheffield University). An unusual concentration of sites was found at Machair Mheadhanach in the Iochdar (Eochar) area, N of the rocket range and W of Loch Bee; some 35 settlement sites, ranging in date from the Late Bronze Age to the early post-medieval period, are strung out within a 2km line along a NW-SE axis. This multifocal pattern is very different from other settlement patterns on South Uist but still fits the 'proto-township' model.
The second major concentration of sites is at Drimore where a group of 14 settlement sites, of various dates, are arranged in a SSE-NNW line 750m long. Most of these were identified in the 1950s during survey and excavation in advance of the construction of the rocket range.
The pattern of hypothesised proto-townships throughout the survey area (unpublished report, Sheffield University) holds reasonably well but there are gaps for each of the six 'shieling' (gearraidh) townships of South Uist. This suggests that these shieling townships may have formed in the medieval period by sub-division of larger units, and thus do not have prehistoric predecessors. Other medieval peatland settlements are tentatively identified at Upper Bornish, Aisgernis (Askernish), Frobost and Cille Pheadair (Kilpheder). There is a strong possibility that most of the nucleated villages mapped by William Bald in 1805 are located on earlier post-medieval and medieval settlements. The movement of settlement off the machair mainly occurred in the post-Norse medieval period. The only exceptions are Baghasdal, where the machair settlement was abandoned only after 1805 supposedly due to 'machair fever' (James MacDonald pers comm), and Machair Mheadhanach which was deserted some time between 1654 and 1805.
Sponsor: Sheffield University.
M Parker Pearson 1996
