Islay, Cruach Mhor
Burial (Viking)(Possible), Arrowhead(S), Bead(S) (Jet)(Period Unknown), Bead (Glass)(Period Unknown), Brooch(S) (Viking), Mace, Scraper (Tool), Slag, Spindle Whorl
Site Name Islay, Cruach Mhor
Classification Burial (Viking)(Possible), Arrowhead(S), Bead(S) (Jet)(Period Unknown), Bead (Glass)(Period Unknown), Brooch(S) (Viking), Mace, Scraper (Tool), Slag, Spindle Whorl
Canmore ID 37666
Site Number NR35SW 1
NGR NR 308 543
NGR Description NR c. 308 543
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37666
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR35SW 1 c.308 543.
NR 3079 5434 (information contained in letter and 6" plan from I Winnaird 8 December 1971). Part of a macehead of brown speckled basalt found in May 1971 at Cruach Mhor, Duich, is in the possession of I Winnaird, 13 Elder Crescent, Bowmore.
Information from RCAHMS.
Approximately NR 308 545 A notable concentration of artifacts was found on the sand surface in a bunker near Cruach Mhor in July 1958 and June-July 1959.
Items found included two Viking tortoise brooches, jet beads, a steatite (?) whorl, sherds varying from Bronze Age to Medieval periods, rusty iron objects (possibly a sword), slag, a leaf shaped, and a barbed and tanged flint arrowhead, a few flint scrapers and the debris of a flint industry, a blue glass bead and odds and ends varying from a George II penny to modern material. A small trench was excavated in 1959 and there was noted what seemed to be a buried soil in which a few indeterminate sherds were found. Soil samples were collected for analysis.
"Viking midden" is indicated at NR 307 544, and "gen. midden material" at NR 305 542 and NR 305 543.
P Lewin and F Celoria 1958; F Celoria 1959; H Richards and P Lewin 1959; Information from RCAHMS.
No further information.
Visited by OS (MJF) 19 June 1978.
Field Visit (June 1981)
NR c.308 545. In 1958 and 1959 two oval brooches, a bead of blue glass and two of jet, a stone spindle whorl, an iron sickle and shears were found close together in sand-dunes about 1.1km W of Duich (IASG, (5)8; material in the care of NMAS). It is likely that they came from a female burial of Viking date, which had been distrubed by erosion. A fragment of one of the brooches was collected from the area in 1978 (in Museum of Islay Life, Port Charlotte (IMT 80-27). Stratified stabilisation-horizons are visible in the dunes, and pottery ranging in date from Neolithic to the medieval period have been recovered and drystone walling has been noted in a hollow caused by deflation (Alcock and Alcock 1980, 66-7).
RCAHMS 1984, visited June 1981