Islay, Kintra

NR34NW 28 3216 4852

In 1981 an inhumation burial was exposed by erosion 2m below the top of a sand-dune 240m N of Kintra. Shortly after its discovery was reported, excavation by members of the Commission's staff revealed the incomplete skeleton of a young male, aligned E-W and lying on its left side, with the legs to the W. The body had been laid in a grave-pit, with a layer of stones immediately on top of it; the pit had then been back-filled with sand and finally covered with slabs, the largest measuring 1.72m by 0.6m and 0.12m in thickness.

Apart from several white quartz pebbles, there were no grave-goods, and a radiocarbon determination of 830 AD +/-65 (GU-1624) obtained from a sample of the bones, provides the only indication of the date of the burial.

J Barber 1981; RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1981.