St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Cleit 137

NF19NW 21.19 09990 99575

Cleit 137, which lies outside the head dyke, is slightly wider internally than most cleitean and at the N end retains the foundations of an attached cell. In a photograph of 1886 this cell is shown complete and roofed.

The main body of the cleit is 4.21m in length and towards the N end achieves a maximum width of 1.88m. The doorway is in the middle of the NE side-wall. At the NW angle there is a break in the outer wall, which also appears originally to have extended further W at the S end. The untidy aspect of the SW side-wall and the internal narrowing of the S end also betray evidence of reconstruction. Internally, the walls are corbelled and the cleit is ceiled by slab-lintels 1.78m above floor-level. Within the NW end there is an aumbry and above it an opening, possibly a window, now partly obscured by the external wall-face.

In the N sector a small, low-level opening, 0.28m high by 0.33m wide, gives access to the remains of the cell. Up to five corbelled courses of the cell wall survive around this aperture, while the remaining foundations show that the cell has been about 1.83m in internal diameter.

G P Stell and M Harman 1988.

Source: K Williamson and J Boyd 1960;