Rum, Bloodstone Hill
Quarry (Mesolithic) - (Bronze Age), Quarry (19th Century), Lithic Implement(S) (Bloodstone)
Site Name Rum, Bloodstone Hill
Classification Quarry (Mesolithic) - (Bronze Age), Quarry (19th Century), Lithic Implement(S) (Bloodstone)
Alternative Name(s) Rhum; Creag Nan Stairdean
Canmore ID 11014
Site Number NG30SW 3
NGR NG 3163 0072
NGR Description Centred at NG 3163 0072
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11014
- Council Highland
- Parish Small Isles
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG30SW 3 315 007
(NG 315 007) Deposits of Bloodstone on the upper part of Bloodstone Hill (formerly Creag nan Stairdean) appear to have been worked from at least the late Mesolithic (c.3000 BC) to the Beaker period (early 2nd millenium BC). Petrological evidence for this comes from the Ardnamurchan Mesolithic industries and from occupation of the cave at Rudh' an Dunain, Skye (NG31NE 5). Since waste material was found on these sites the implication is that it was removed from Rhum in rough form to be worked locally.
The principal deposit is a solid band c.9" thick not far from the summit on the north face. It is not visible but pieces of bloodstone can be procured at the deposit level and the screes below it. It was once worked as an ornamental stone and an old quarry is shown on the 6" map.
P R Ritchie 1968
The quarry shown on OS 6" is now not evident on the ground. Otherwise as described by Ritchie.
Visited by OS (AA) 15 May 1972.
Field Visit (May 1983)
Bloodstone Hill NG 315 007 NG30SW 3
Although the primary outcrop of bloodstone occurs on the precipitous N slopes of Creag nam Stardean (Bloodstone Hill), fragments of bloodstone form a significant fraction of the beach pebbles in Guirdil Bay. Secondary deposits, such as this, may have been the principal source of supply for prehistoric man. The main outcrop was quarried commercially for a short period in the nineteenth century.
RCAHMS 1983, visited May 1983
(Ritchie, 1968, 117-21)
