North Uist, Craonaval South
Cairn (Prehistoric), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name North Uist, Craonaval South
Classification Cairn (Prehistoric), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 10284
Site Number NF86SW 41
NGR NF 83333 62913
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10284
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF86SW 41 8332 6290.
A conspicuous, turf-covered, stony mound, robbed and disturbed for secondary buildings on and beside it, but probably a burial cairn, though it has no diagnostic features.
A S Henshall 1972.
The cairn measures 22m NW-SE by 19m and is less than 2.4m high.
Surveyed at 1:10,560.
Visited by OS, 8 June 1965.
Field Visit (4 August 1915)
Slabs and Cairns, Craonaval.
Craonaval is a low hill about 2 miles south-east of Clachan, rising little more than 300 feet above sea-level, and terminating in two rounded summits about 300 yards apart. It is notable for the numerous prehistoric burial monuments erected on its slopes or their immediate vicinity. On the north-western summit are two large slabs known as Leac a Mhiosachan (NF86SW 8), partly embedded in peat, lying roughly parallel about 3 feet apart. The largest and south-eastern slab measures 11 feet 9 inches in length, 4 feet 2 inches in breadth, and about 1 foot in thickness. Under it and open to the south-east is a cavity about one foot in depth, at the south-western end of which are two small boulders. The slab, however, does not rest on these, but is tilted a few inches above them. The other slab measures 6 feet in length and over 4 feet in breadth.
About half-way down the gentle slope of the hill to the north are two prominent grass-covered, stony mounds, lying about 120 yards apart and crowned by ruined shielings. These have probably been cairns. The higher cairn (NF86SW 41) measures some 65 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, and the lower (NF86SW 13), though it stands 8 feet high, is so pulled about that no indications of its diameter can be obtained.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 4 August 1915.
OS map: North Uist xl (unnoted).
Field Visit (4 March 2010)
This cairn is one of two described by Henshall as Craonaval North (the other is described under NF86SW 13). It is a large grass-grown mound measuring 16m in diameter and 2m in height, and has several shieling huts built on and around its foot.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG,SPH) 4 March 2010
