Bernera Farm

NG82SW 3 8054 2094 to 8049 2096.

(Area NG 804 209) Two grassy mound are situated at the W end of the raised beach across the mouth of Glen Bernera, on the right of the road to Kyle Rea ferry. The first is an elliptical cairn c. 60' long and 6' high, the upper part of which has been worn down on the seaward side exposing a curved line of stones suggesting an intermal structural wall. The second, situated a short distance to the W, beside a small burn, carries the grass-covered outline of a retangular building c. 24' x 12' within a circular bank. The ruins of another building and a shed stand at the back of this mound.

E A Cormack 1964.

Undoubtedly the remains of two cairns on the brink of a raised beach. The easterly one (at NG 8054 2094) is a turf-covered stony mound c. 11.0m in diameter and 1.5m high, which has been cut through by a track in the S arc. The centre appears to be intact. It has spilled out in the N and its original perimeter is conjectural.

The other (at NG 8049 2096) is now represented by a mutilated turf-covered stony mound 16.0m E-W by 11.0m N-S by 1.0m high. Around the S half, immediately outside the base, is a poorly-preserved curving stony bank spread to 2.5m. Excavated into the N side is a now ruinous modern building with an outhouse on the W. It is possible that the curving bank is contemporary with the cairn and formerly encircled it. If this so, it would have measured about 21.0m between its centres and the cairn would have been c.17.0m in diameter, but any evidence for this has been destroyed. Unless another cairn was destroyed between these two (the raised beach has been cut through here for agricultural purposes) it is highly likely that the skeletons found in the 19th c were discovered during the quarrying of this cairn (See NG82SW 2). It is still traditionally known as a burial ground.

Surveyed at 1:2500 (visited by OS {R L} 29 September 1966).

Visited by OS (A A) 21 June 1974.