Aird Ma-ruibhe

6.2 Square, kerbed cairn

6.2.1 Description

P48 The cairn was given the site number 56, to follow on from the schedule of sites already assigned during previous work on North Uist…The de-turfing and cleaning of the cairn revealed a well-built structure in a good state of

P49 preservation. It measured 3m c 3m and stood about 0.4m high. The kerb on the south-eastern and north-eastern edges was formed of slabs of gneiss, with their worked edges forming a good facing to the structure. The kerb was between one and two courses thick, to compensate for variations in the original ground surface. The eastern corner of the ciarn was well formed, but the northern and southern corners both appeared to have stones missing, and showed signs of disturbance. The kerb on the northern-western edge was only partially exposed, but appeared to be of similar slab-built construction…A discrete patch of black/brown soil was revealed at the southern corner of the cairn, in the area that appeared to have been disturbed. This was not excavated, but it was thought to be a post-hole or stone-hole, and it was bounded by several stones, which may have been used for packing.

The main body of the cairn comprised a low mound of sub-rounded and angular gneiss and quartz fragments…The stones were smaller and more densely packed towards the edges of the carine, and fomred a good surface, while those towards the centre were larger, and much less coherent. It is thought that the central area of the cairn has lost a layer of smaller stones, through erosion. These stones … overlay the top kerb stones, indicating that the kerb had been constructed first, and filled with smaller stones and soil later…

P50 Some of the larger stones in the centre of the cairn were thought to relate to a grave cist, running north-south. One large orthostat was located towards the southern corner of the cairn, and stood 25cm above the surface of the main cairn fill. The slab was about 8cm thick, and had been worked to a right-angled point. Even if a layer of material has been lost from the centre of the cairn, it is likely that this stone protruded from the top of the cairn mound. Other stones forming the probable cist comprised square stones towards the south and north corners of the cairn, and two semi-upright slabs, also running in a north-south direction.

Downes and Badcock 1999, 48-50

DES 2000: P101: Berneray Causeway: Neolithic settlement; burial cairns; post-medieval cultivation

Another cairn was discovered during further stages of the watching brief in August 1998 at Aird Ma-Ruibhe. Thiks was a square cairn, thought to be Pictish in date, measuring 3 x 3m and comprised a kerb of worked gneiss slabs, with a mound of posts, but a post-hole was located at the S corner of the cairn. This monument was also threatened by the causeway works, but is now protected through realignment of the new road.

Downes and Badcock 2000, 101