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Oronsay, Druim Mor

Archaeological Landscape (Prehistoric) - (Post Medieval)

Site Name Oronsay, Druim Mor

Classification Archaeological Landscape (Prehistoric) - (Post Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Rubha Caol

Canmore ID 37802

Site Number NR38NE 13

NGR NR 351 873

NGR Description Centred NR 351 873

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37802

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Colonsay And Oronsay
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Activities

Field Visit (20 April 1974)

NR 3517 8734. On a slightly raised area of peat and heather, surrounded by grass and bracken, is a hut circle. It consists of a heather-covered bank of sea- washed stones 2.0m wide and 0.7m high enclosing a flat interior 5.0m in diameter. The unsplayed SE entrance is 2.0m wide. Nearby are three heather-covered clearance cairns.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (JP) 20 April 1974

Field Visit (20 April 1974)

NR 351 871. Situated on the S of Oronsay on flat ground on the edge of the 25' raised beach are some fifty clearance cairns and several field banks. Most of the area is now covered by a layer of peat which is as much as 20cm thick on the clearance cairns. The cairns are composed of large sea-washed stones. An area to the SE of the system is less well cleared and supports a growth of grass and bracken. The banks measure up to 4.0m wide and 0.7m high with the cairns up to 1.2m high. There is no hut circle within this field system but 200m to the NE is a well- preserved hut.

Visited by OS (JP) 20 April 1974

Measured Survey (1978)

RCAHMS surveyed the hut-circle, field-system and cairns at Druim Mor at a scale of 1:1000. The plans, covering some 55 hectares, were redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, opp p.136).

Field Visit (April 1979)

NR 35 87. Situated on Druim Mor, the broad peninsula that forms the SW limb of Oronsay, there are the extensive remains of a multiperiod field-system, several groups of cairns and a hut-circle. The various elements are described as they occur from SW to NE (see plan RCAHMS 1984, opp 136).

(1) [Canmore ID 377195] On the top of the raised beach on Rubha Caol there is a group of banks and cairns separated from Druim Mor by a low stony bank which cuts across the neck of the peninsula. To the S there is a stretch of bank 2m thick and 0.3m high which turns sharply back on itself, and which for part of its course is flanked by a shallow ditch (A). In the uncleared ground to the W of this bank there are a few round cairns between 2m and 3m in diameter and up to 0.4m in height, and an oval cairn 9m long and 0.3m high. A further two cairns, 3m in diameter and 0.3m in height, are situated on the top of the bank. Also within the enclosure formed by this bank there are the remains of a rectangular stone-built kelp-kiln. Any possible extension of these banks and cairns to the E has been destroyed by rig-and-furrow cultivation.

(2) [377205] In a slight hollow between (1) and the upper raised-storm-beach there are two stretches of stony bank and several cairns. The more southerly bank, which measures 2m in thickness and 0.2m in height, is probably the remains of a subrectangular enclosure (B), the fourth side having been destroyed by the modern track. About 25m to the N there is a short straight stretch of bank measuring 2m in thickness and 0.2m in height behind which there are at least five cairns ranging from 2m to 3m in diameter and up to 0.4m in height.

(3) [377206] The largest and most impressive group of remains is situated on the crest of the upper raised-storm-beach and extends for some distance on the raised beach to the NE (C). It comprises at least fifty-five cairns and stretches of banking belonging to at least two periods, and is overlain by rig-and-furrow cultivation which except for two outlying cairns has probably destroyed the northward extension of this group. The earliest features appear to be a series of stony banks, measuring between 2m and 5m in thickness and up to 0.6m in height, which form part of a field-system made up of a number of relatively small enclosures. In addition, there is a larger enclosure (D), built up against a bank which flanked the groups on the w and s with a spur extending towards (2). The interior of D is largely soil-less, being composed of raised-beach pebbles. In at least two instances cairns have been built on top of the banks, and it is therefore possible that the majority of the cairns are later than the banks. The cairns measure up to 6.5m in diameter and 0.8m in height. Later ploughing and stone-clearing has elongated some of them, and a few may be of comparatively recent date. Possibly contemporary with the rig-and-furrow cultivation is a stretch of earth-and-stone dyke which has been built on top of the earlier bank forming the E side of enclosure D. It then continues northwards along the line of the earlier flanking banks and forms part of an extensive enclosure-system.

(4) [377207] About 150m ENE of (3), on a slight rise on the crest of Druim Mor, there are four cairns and a hut-circle (E). The largest of the cairns has been elongated by ploughing and measures about 105m in length, 4m in breadth and 0.6m in height; the other cairns are circular, measuring between 3m and 5m in diameter and up to 0.6m in height. To the NE of the cairns there is a well-preserved hut-circle measuring about 6m in diameter within an earth-and-stone bank 0.75m high; the entrance is on the SE. The interior is slightly lower than the surrounding ground, and it is likely that the material for the bank was scraped up from the interior.

(5) [377208] On the crest of Druim Mor, about 215m ENE of (4), there is a group of twenty-four cairns and six stretches of

bank (F). Several cairns have been clipped by rig-and-furrow cultivation, and the banks appear to be the last fragments of a formerly larger system. The cairns range from 1.5m to 5m in diameter and stand to a maximum height of 0.7m; the banks measure up to 4.8m in thickness and 0.6m in height. One cairn has been built on top of a bank. Some of the cairns, particularly those on the W, have been enlarged by recent field-clearance and others may be wholly of recent date.

(6) [377210] To the E of (5) there are a number of cairns scattered over a wide area extending to the E of a nineteenth-century wall which cuts off the sw end of Druim Mor. They range from 2m to 4m in diameter and measure up to 0.7m in height. At least one recent clearance-heap is visible amongst the cairns.

The earliest features on Druim Mor appear to be the banks at (2), (3), (5), and possibly at (1), which formed part of a field-system of prehistoric date which may have been contemporary with the hut-circle at (4). At (1), (3) and (5), where a relationship between the cairns and the banks can be established, the cairns are later than the banks and may represent a period of agricultural abandonment within the prehistoric period. The function of the cairns is not certain, but some, at least, may cover burials. The date of the rig-and-furrow cultivation is not known and it may relate to comparatively recent occupation, but it was probably abandoned by the time of the agricultural improvements made on the island in the nineteenth century.

RCAHMS 1984, visited April 1979.

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