Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Harris, Nisabost
Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Site Name Harris, Nisabost
Classification Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 10536
Site Number NG09NW 8
NGR NG 0419 9679
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10536
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Harris
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG09NW 8 0419 9679.
(NG 0419 9679) Erd House (NR) (Centred NG 042 967) Tumuli (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)
This earth-house was excavated by Thomas c. 1860. The floor was as much as 12' below the surface of the sandhill in which it was buried. The plan shows an irregular pear-shaped chamber leading into two beehive chambers. The walls in some places were still 6' high. Finds included a quernstone, sherds of craggans and animal bones (F W L Thomas 1962).
By 1914, only a heap of stones on the surface of a sandhill indicated the position of the earth-house, having more the appearance of a cairn (diameter 50', height 16').
A large mound of stones is situated c. 25 yards W of the earth-house, with a number of small heaps of stones, probably the apices of cairns, at a lower level to the E (RCAHMS 1928).
RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914; F W L Thomas 1862.
No trace remains of this souterrain, in an area of sand dunes, nor of the alleged 'Tumuli', although there are vague walls, and possibly buildings of indeterminate date and type in the area centred NG 044 968. Visited by OS (N K B) 29 June 1969.
Field Visit (4 June 1914)
Earth-house and Cairns, Nisabost.
The earth-house among the sand dunes on the peninsula at Nisabost, about 200 yards north-west of the road 1 ¼ miles north by east of Borve Lodge, is covered with sand. The southern curve of a heap of stones appearing on the surface of a sandhill is pointed out as the building of the earth-house, but this has more the appearance of a cairn with a diameter of at least 50 feet and a height of 16 feet. Another large mound of stones very slightly bared is seen about 25 yards to the west, while at a lower level to the east a number of small heaps of stones, possibly the apices of cairns, just appear above the sand, but too little of their structure is visible to judge of their character.
RCAHSM 1928, visited 4 June 1914.
OS map: Harris xvii.
