North Uist, Vallay Strand, Cnoc A'comhdalach

Earth-house, Cnoc a Comhdhalach, Vallay Strand.

About 400 yards north of Loch nan Clachan, and about 30 yards west of Vallay Strand near its south-western corner, was a green mound locally known as Cnoc a Comhdhalach. This was excavated in 1905 and 1907 by Mr Beveridge, and was found to contain a circular earth-house divided into compartments by radial walls. On excavation the inner face of the wall showed an average height of about 4 feet 6 inches, the internal diameter of the structure measuring some 24 feet from east to west and 22 feet 6 inches from north to south. The wall towards the south-west measured 9 feet 6 inches in thickness and about 7 feet on the opposite side. It is entered by a long entrance passage on the eastern side, measuring about 20 feet in length, the walls on either side reaching a height of 3 and 4 feet. At the outer entrance, which faces the north-east, the passage is almost 3 feet wide. For 10 feet inwards it follows a south-westerly course, then curves sharply towards the west, entering the central chamber about the middle of its eastern side. The passage varies considerably in width, the widest part at the bend measuring as much as 50 inches and the narrowest part, which is a few feet nearer the inside, being only 26 inches. In the south wall of the passage, at the widest part where it makes the curve, a staircase of five narrow roughly-built steps rises from the floor. It measures 21 inches in width and rises about 27 inches in height. The passage has apparently been roughly paved from the outside to about 7 feet within the staircase, where a slab set on edge projects about 8 inches above the floor. This sill is flanked on either side of its interior by stone jambs, apparently checks for a door which opened towards the inside. There is a second entrance in the south-west part of the building, which measures about 2 feet8 inches across the inner end. It expands slightly towards the outside, but at about a distance of 2 feet it is suddenly contracted by a pair of jambs placed 23 inches apart, this opening having probably been closed by a door opening from the inside like that on the opposite entrance. The wall forming the north side of this entrance continues in a straight line for a length of about 9 ½ feet through the main structure of the wall, but the southern wall has a wide splay outwards, making an exterior opening of over 8 feet in width. This entrance seems to have been paved, and where it enters the interior its floor stands about afoot higher than that of the main building. When excavated this doorway was found to be carefully built up. Within the thickness of the wall on the north side of the last entrance the complete outline of an irregularly shaped oval chamber, measuring 6 feet from east to west and 5 feet 3 inches from north to south, was traceable. It seemed to have had a domical roof. Within the wall to the north of the oval chamber there seems to have been a narrow gallery about24 inches wide, which extends almost to the most northerly point of the structure. The building of this part is poor, the outer shell of the wall being barely 2 feet in width. There seems to have been another small curvilinear cell within the wall immediately adjoining the northern termination of the gallery just described, but no indication of an access to this was noticed.

The interior of the earth-house is divided into six compartments by six radial walls and a prolongation of the southern wall of the eastern entrance passage. The radial walls vary from 4 to 5 feet in length and from 15 to 30 inches in width, and average about 4 feet in height. They are so placed as to leave an open space about 11 feet in diameter in the centre of the interior court, and they stop short about 20 to 33 inches from the inner face of the main wall. The space between the radial walls and the main wall has been lintelled over, as two lintels remain in position at the south-east, and one on each of the radials in the north-eastern sector. Apparently the space between the inner ends of the radiating walls had been closed by slabs set on end, the three compartments on the north showing each the slab in position. The chambers so formed are thus voussoirs-shaped and intercommunicate by the open space left between the radial walls and the main wall of the building.

From the compartment immediately to the south of the main entrance a doorway, 32 inches high and 18 inches wide, roofed by a single lintel stone, leads into an oval cell measuring about 5 feet in length within the thickness of the building, and immediately to the east of this and still within the thickness of the wall on the south side of the entrance passage are slight indications of two further narrow oval cells. Almost in the centre of the building a rectangular hearth, measuring 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 7 inches, bordered by flat stones, still remains on the floor. Immediately to the north-east of the earth-house indeterminate foundations of another structure, apparently divided into narrow rectangular compartments, were exposed.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 28 June 1915

OS map: North Uist xxx (unnoted).

NF77 3 CNOC A' COMHDHALACH

NF/7708 7415

This above ground aisled wheel-house (perhaps inside a ruined broch) in North Uist was cleared out between 1905 and 1907 and Beveridge's account of the work was included in his book [2] (pron. 'Crok ah Congalach').

1. Description

The roundhouse wall was free-standing and had a maximum thickness of 2.90m (9.5 ft); most of the stones of the outer face had been removed. There were cavities or galleries in the wall but the description of these is not always clear. At the entrance on the east the wall expanded greatly in thickness, to about 7.63m (25 ft); the passage itself, some 6.1m (20 ft) in length, has a shallow bend about halfway along and was presumably extended outwards from the roundhouse at some stage. In the south wall at the corner was a narrow stair in the thickness of the wall which presumably led up to the wall-head [2, pl. on 204]. The door-frame was represented by a sill stone and by one door-check near the inner end. Another entrance was on the south-south-west and had a door-frame with two checks; this passage had been carefully blocked and may be the original one. There may have been a guard cell next to this doorway. Beveridge noted indications of an intra-mural gallery in the wall along its southern and south-western part.

In the interior were seven radial piers of which six were free-standing; the seventh was attached to the wall just to the left (south) of the open entrance and extended that wall into the interior [2, plate on p. 203]. The piers seemed to the excavator to be complete and were 1.22 to 1.53m (4-5 ft) long, 38-76cm (15-30 in) wide and reached 1.22m (4 ft) in height. The 'aisle' varied from 51-84cm (20-33 in) in width. One of the piers had a pair of lintels in position bonding it to the wall (and roofing the ‘aisle’) and a “thin wall” – that is a kerb – joined the inner ends of the four on the north and west.

The diameter of the central area defined by the piers was 3.34m (11 ft) and that of the central court as a whole 6.86 - 7.32m (22.5 - 24 ft). In the middle was a rectangular paved hearth edged with stones and measuring 86 by 48cm (34 by 19 in). The central area contained evidence of a long occupation after the primary hearth period, in the form of –

"… a mass of debris 5 feet in depth and containing successive strata of ashes and natural soil. For example, in its lower half, and within three feet above the original floor level, were two six-inch layers of red ashes together with a less pronounced third layer, all separated by equally thick accumulations of black earth."

Another hearth was found 1.5m (5 ft) above the primary floor [2, pl. on p. 205].

An oval chamber was in the thickness of the wall just south of the eastern entrance and was entered from the bay to the left of the passage through a small lintelled opening. Behind this chamber was something like an external hut, perhaps backing on to the outer wallface. It was suggested by Scott that the expanded 'walls' on either side of the open entrance might be made-up working floors, like those at Clettraval (NF72 2) (Scott 1948) [2, pl. on p. 206].

2. Discussion

This is an unusual site for a wheelhouse, particularly in that it seems to have had two entrances; the door-frame in the blocked-up one recalls that of a broch. It is impossible to be sure about the structural sequence without re-excavation but it may be that here the stump of a broch was fitted out as a wheelhouse and a new entrance cut through the wall. Otherwise the roundhouse has several similarities to Clettraval (NF77 2), notably in the aisled interior, the free-standing wall and the possible working platforms at the entrance. A search for a surrounding yard wall and subsidiary structures might be fruitful.

The site was evidently occupied for a long period, and underwent various mod-ifications, but the finds cannot be allocated to specific phases from the information given. However the clear nail-headed bone pin [2, pl. on p. 210] shows that the late occupation, including perhaps the upper hearth, belonged to the late Iron Age – not earlier than the 7th century.

3. Finds [2, 204 ff. and 5 plates on pp. 207-11].

Bronze: 1 ring-headed pin 89mm (3.5 in) long [2, pl. on p. 210] (it is not clear from the illustration whether this is a true north British ring-headed pin, though it looks like one), and 1 pin with a pointed, flat, spatulate head [2, pl. on p. 210]. Some possible crucibles (below) may indicate bronze-working.

Bone: 1 nail-headed pin. [2, pl. on p. 110].

Stone: 2 grooved quartzite pebbles or strike-a-lights [2, pl. on p. 209], 1 pebble with 7 neat parallel grooves on it, perhaps a sharpener for bone pins [2, pl. on p. 209], many hammerstones, flat discs (perhaps pot lids) 18-20cm (7-8 in) in diameter, both stones of a rotary quern with the remarkably small diameter of 34cm (13.5 in), 3 whorls [2, pl. on p. 209], 1 thin whetstones, 1 fragment of granitic schist with 6mm (0.25 in) deep hollows on both faces, 1 thin disc of schist, diameter 2.4cm (1 in), and 1 piece of pumice [2, pl. on p. 210].

Flint: 10 flakes, 1 made into an arrowhead [2, pl. on p. 210].

Fired clay: 1 spindle whorl [2, pl. on p. 210], and several possible crucibles (in the form of fragments of flat, shallow dishes about 2.4cm (1 in) in diameter and 0.6cm (0.25 in) deep).

Pottery: illustrated in Beveridge's plates are 1 wall sherd with an applied zig-zag cordon, presumably from an Everted Rim jar, 1 turned-out rim with a row of pits under it, presumably a Vaul ware vase, 1 finger-impressed everted rim with a flat cordon below it, 1 wall sherd with short, parallel rows of shallow, channelled lines (presumably derived from the Clettraval style), 1 wall sherd with shallow, flat grooves and a zig-zag applied cordon (the same), and 1 wall sherd with an incised pattern of criss-cross lines – presumably also a Vaul ware vase. No doubt this is a tiny sample of the pottery found.

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NF 77 SE 3: 2. Beveridge 2001, 200-07 and : 3. RCAHMS 1928, 87-8, no. 269: 4. Scott 1947, 22, fig. 8: 5. Scott 1948, 73: 6. Armit 1996 7. Crawford 2002.

E W MacKie 2007