Reference
Date 2001
Event ID 928397
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/928397
This island measures 3km from E to W by 1.6km and rises at the SW to a summit of 171m. Most of its surface is composed of exposed gneiss and the shores are rocky, but at the NE there is a beach backed by sand-dunes, and areas of blown sand which afforded some cultivable soil and supported a small population. The only settlement was located about 180m from the head of the beach, and immediately to the NE there is a grass-covered sandy mound on whose summit a chapel was situated. The area between the settlement and the shore, and the E slope of the mound itself, have yielded extensive shell-midden material, and artefacts including an enamelled 'hand-pin' of early medieval type. The mound, which is up to 7m in height, appears to owe its form mainly to wind-erosion, although there are some remains of drystone revetments on its sides. The summit is not now large enough to preserve the chapel measuring about 9.5m by 4.3m whose 'indistinct foundations' were visible in 1915, although some scattered stones remain on the summit and the S and E slopes. Some of these stones appear to have been gravemarkers, and they include a symbol-stone (no.1) and another cross-marked stone (no.2), both near the foot of the S slope, while two other cross-marked stones stand near the S edge of the summit.
(1) Slab of local gneiss, uncovered by drifting sand some time before 1889. It is roughly rectangular, measuring 1.23m by 0.39m and 0.14m thick, but the top edges are damaged. The surface is worn and lichen-stained and the lower part, which evidently formed a butt for the stone to stand upright, is flaked. In the centre of the slab there is incised the 'flower' symbol, a tapering stem whose upper part splits into two branches, both curving to the right and ending in broad terminals. Above this there is a crescent-and-V-rod symbol of the 'dome-and-wing' type, ornamented with two small circles. The right terminal is effaced and the other is much worn, but appears to incorporate a circle. At the top of the slab, rising from the upper curve of the crescent just right of its apex, there is an incised Latin cross, 0.21m in height and span. Its side-arms have barred terminals, but the top arm, which appears to be complete despite damage to the edge of the slab, is plain. The cross is more deeply incised than the symbols, and its position appears to be chosen to make the best use of available space, suggesting that it was an addition to the slab. (E Beveridge 1922, 2, pl.303; J Anderson 1897, 299-300; Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 111-13; RCAHMS 1928, No.438; R B K Stevenson 1955, C11; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 27-8; A Mack 1997, 135).
(2) Slightly tapered pillar of gneiss, much worn and lichen-stained, broken across about 0.15m below the top and lacking the upper left edge. It measures 0.79m by 0.15m to 0.19m, and is 90mm thick. It bears a sunken cross with expanded terminals, 0.19m high and having a 100mm transom at about mid-height.
(RCAHMS 1928, No.438; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31).
(3) Irregular earthfast pillar of gneiss, 1.32m in visible height by 0.33m by 0.3m. On the W face there is a cross with barred terminals, 0.19m high and 0.15m across the transom, which is at mid-height. It is executed with a shallow sunken groove of U-section and is set in an incised cruciform frame, 0.29m high and 0.21m across the arms. The top arm of this outer cross has a constriction which gives it the form of a cross-potent.
(RCAHMS 1928, No.438 and fig.175; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31).
(4) Earthfast pillar of gneiss, 0.49m in visible height by 1.35m square at base and tapering to 0.1m on the E and W faces and 0.12m on the sides. On the E face (a) there is a sunken Latin cross, 0.31m high and 95mm across the arms, executed with a U-section groove about 25mm wide. On the W face (b) there is a similar cross, 0.36m high, whose top and side-arms extend to the edges of the pillar.
Footnotes:
(i) For the settlement history of the island see Buxton, op.cit., 150-7; M A Edwards 1981; Branigan and Foster 2000, 81-92, 234-77.
(ii) J Wedderspoon 1915, 325-7. For the hand-pin (now in the Museum of Scotland), see PSAS, 35 (1900-1), 278-9.
(iii) RCAHMS 1928, No.438; photograph, 1895, in E Beveridge 1922, 2, pl.302.
RCAHMS 1928, No.438; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31.
I Fisher 2001, 106.
