Barra, Allasdale, Tigh Talamhanta

Cairn, Tigh Talamhanta, Cuier.

At An Criathrach, on a grassy slope at the base of Cora Bheinn, about 7/8 mile south-south-east of Cuier, and 650 yards north-east of the chambered cairn (NF60SE 5), at an elevation of 400 feet above sea-level, is a dilapidated cairn, possibly chambered, overgrown with grass. It has been too much destroyed for accurate measurement, but seems to have been at least 75 feet in diameter, and is now some 10 feet in height. At its north-north-western base is a detached grass covered mound of stones of considerable size.

The name Tigh Talamhanta given to it on the O.S. map is apparently the same name as Tigh Talamh used for earth-houses in Skye and North Uist, and suggests that, when it received this name, there had been a house like structure within the mound, doubtless the burial chamber.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 5 June 1915.

OS map: Barra lxiv.

NF60 9 TIGH TALAMHANTA 1 ('The Allasdale')

NF/6766 0225

This site in Barra is an above-ground aisled wheelhouse with a souterrain and subsidiary buildings within a sur-rounding farmyard wall. It stands on a slight rocky rise among moorland – conspicuous from a distance because of its green grass and tumbled stones [3, pl. VI] – at the foot of the hill Cora Bheinn. The Gaelic name means 'the underground house' which might suggest a folk memory of its original purpose.

1. Introduction

The Commission thought the site might be the ruins of a chambered cairn [2] but excavations by Sir L Scott in 1950-51 and then by Alison Young in 1953 showed that the mound contained a roundhouse set within a farmyard wall. This site, together with Clettraval (NF77 2), is of considerable importance as it demonstrates the layout of a complete Iron Age farm. It is not entirely clear from the report just how much of the excavation was done by each of the persons involved, but at the time of his death Sir Lindsay Scott had evidently worked out the basic interpretations of the site's features. There was no later occupation after the wheelhouse was in ruins.

2. The excavations

2.1 Phase 1

The main building. The main stone roundhouse is surrounded by a yard wall enclosing about 535 sqm (640 sq. yds). This boundary wall can be traced on three sides of the roughly rectangular enclosure (being in the form of a bank for some of the way) while the fourth side on the south-west is bounded by a burn [3, fig. 1]. The buildings formed a little group close to the north-east wall of the enclosure. Attached to the roundhouse was an underground passage or souterrain, running out from the interior and under the wall, and a rectangular 'kiln house' was built against its exterior. Within the enclosed yard was a sheltered working place with a drain, and also a rectangular barn and byre, set against the surrounding wall.

The circular farmhouse itself was 10.98m (36 ft) in diameter internally with a wall varying from 0.92 - 1.53m (3-5 ft) in thickness and surviving to a maximum height of six courses of stones. Seven internal radial piers were preserved but there were originally nine, two having disappeared when the southern arc of the wall was rebuilt and thickened inwards. The piers were free-standing and founded on clay and a kerb of stones on edge joined their inner ends. A circular recess about 1.37m (4.5 ft) in diameter was in the south wall, and had a step leading up into it.

Between piers 4 and 5, on the north side, was the entrance to the cellar or souterrain, by way of a narrow passage through the wall in which were two steps down; a massive lintel roofed this passage at its outer end. The souterrain consisted of a shallow trench the edges of which had been lined with drystone walling and roofed with stone lintels, some of which remained. A rock-cut drain led out from its lower end and emerged on the slope below.

Floor levels and finds. The floor of the roundhouse was mainly cobbled but had rough paving in the central area; the bays between the piers had beaten clay floors. In the centre was a roughly oval hearth of flat slabs, and three post-holes – one containing charred spruce – were also found in the central area. In Phase 1 of the occupation all these features were in use, the roundhouse presumably having its full complement of nine piers.

A black occupation layer, containing many potsherds, covered the central area and extended thinly into the bays; it was supposed by Scott to be the remains of the collapsed and burned wooden roof. Many sherds from a single jar were found in the lowest level of this layer, and it is curious that this pot is plausible as an early version of a Dun Cuier jar (below). In Bay 7/8 there was a funnel-shaped basin of hard clay from which a lintelled drain ran along the inside wallface and then under the wall to the outside in Bay 5/6.

The farmyard wall). This was made of stone where the ground was solid (along the east and north sides of the enclosure, closest to the buildings) but became two parallel straight turf banks on the marshy ground on the south-east and north-west sides respectively. The Allasdale Burn now forms the south-west side but the course of this has doubtless changed over the years, obliterating the fourth stretch of turf bank which would have been necessary if cattle and sheep had to be kept inside the enclosure at any stage.

The “kiln house”. This was built against the roundhouse wall along its northern sector, and was probably a lean-to structure; its internal dimensions (taken from the plan) were 6.86m (22.5 ft) maximum length and from 3.36 - 2.29m (11.0 - 7.5 ft) in width (varying because of the curvature of the roundhouse wall). It seems to have been entered from inside the roundhouse by way of a slightly raised passage through the wall. There was a paved hearth on the floor with what seemed to be a paved vent or smoke-hole running through the outer wall; this had a slab which might have been used for adjusting the draught. Scott thought that this building was used for corn drying [4, 196].

The “barn/byre” or “steading”. This was another rectangular and probably lean-to building (apparently reused in the 18th century) which was set against the yard wall at the bottom of the slope to the north of the roundhouse. It measured about 8.2m (27 ft) long and 3.8m (12.5 ft) wide. Scott apparently estimated that the drystone wall originally stood about 1.2m (4 ft) high. A rainwater drain had been cut into the soft rock and ran along the foot of the outer wallface on the long side (facing the roundhouse) and along the south-east end; here it ran under the farm yard wall.

The remains of a thin internal dividing wall were found, indicating that there were two rooms inside. The one on the south-east occupied about three-fifths of the interior and contained a gravel floor as well as a paved hearth with ash; it was interpreted as the barn, presumably for hay or stored grain. The other, smaller half had its entrance facing the roundhouse and contained a clay built hearth covered by peat ash in which an iron ring was found. There was also a covered drain running from the inner end of the doorway round to the northern end where it met a larger outlet drain which ran under the wall to a sump. This was thought to be a small byre.

The “working place”. This small building – probably a partly roofed shelter – was found west of the roundhouse, built against the face of a hard rock outcrop; it had a stone seat or bench which had probably been covered with turf. There was also a hearth and a drain running downhill.

2.2 Phase 2

In a later phase of occupation part of the roundhouse wall on the south evidently collapsed; at the same time the wall may have fallen and been burned (if that is the correct explanation of the dark layer). If this is what happened the excavators should have found the burnt layer extending under the secondary rebuild in the south sector but this is not specifically mentioned. However any primary floor deposit could obviously have shown the same stratigraphy. A thick reinforcing wall was built along the inside of the collapsed wall between piers 7 and 1 (at the entrance), and after 8 and 9 had been demolished. This added masonry was some 1.5m (5 ft) wide. The remains of the circular recess in the main wall were thus concealed.

Rough paving was laid over the beaten floors of the remaining bays and a stone bench was built near the hearth, which was a new, square, paved one laid over the oval original.

3. Discussion

3.1 The farm and its significance.

Tigh Talamhanta was the second of the two known examples of above-ground roundhouses which are set within their own yard walls and accompanied by subsidiary structures. This site and Clettraval (NF77 2) thus provide valuable information about the real nature of some, if not most, of these houses – information which would be much harder to recover from the dug-out sites on the machair; vast quantities of sand would have to be removed from a wide area round the latter, and this has not yet been done systematically.

The economy seems likely to have been based on mixed farming, though the apparent absence of animal bones, and of rotary hand-mills, prevents us from filling in the details. The fact that Mrs Young took over the responsibility for finishing the excavation and publishing it may explain the fact that the animal bone evidence is missing, However the absence of bone tools (below)may mean that very little bone was preserved on the site. However the structure interpreted as the barn-and-byre surely indicates the nature of the farm clearly, as does the enclosure wall. While there may be some doubt about the exact interpretation of some wheelhouses, the suggestion that they were all temples of some kind (Crawford 2002) is clearly absurd in relation to Tigh Talamhanta and Clettraval and extremely improbable for the other properly excavated sites which have produced rotary querns and bones of sheep and cattle.

3.2 The pottery.

In terms of her analysis of the pottery from the roundhouse Mrs Young was evidently starting to get away from the methods of her mentor, Sir Lindsay Scott, who, because the sherds were mostly small, tended to analyse the occurrence of isolated formal and decorative traits rather than whole vessel types (see Clettraval: NF77 2). She was starting to recognise actual ceramic styles and to construct a Hebridean Iron Age sequence which her later excavations on South Uist and Barra amplified (A Cheardach Mhor and Dun Cuier respectively).

4. Finds

Although the illustrated potsherds are individually described in a list [3, 96-99] the same is not true of the other artifacts found. Except in the case of the brooch the illustrations of these are referred to only in general terms.

Iron objects. These included 1 ring (no. 2) which appears from the drawing to be just over 4 in (12.4cm) in diameter; this may be a tether ring or door handle. There were also 2 fragments of knife blades (from the kiln house) (nos. 3 and 4), and 1 riveted strap end (from the outside working place), and a pin shaft (presumably from the roundhouse).

Copper alloy. The use of the classic bronze northern ring-headed pin is clear from the impressions on one of the pots found. Also found was what may be an unusual form of Iron Age brooch (no. 1), the spring and pin of which had been broken off; the 'catch plate' was present (with part of the flat bow) and almost intact but there was no sign of a groove to catch the pin. It was made of a leaded bronze (containing lead and t in) with an appreciable zinc content. The zinc indicates a probable origin for the metal in Roman Gaul [3, 105], perhaps as scrap. The object looks like an unskilled local copy of a fibula (at the time those comments about zinc were written Dun Mor Vaul broch on Tiree had not been excavated and the presence of pieces of zinc in the Western Isles was not suspected. If the brooch is a ‘local copy’ then the metal could have been alloyed locally also).

Bronze working [3, pl. V.2]. Several fragments of fired clay moulds (nos. 7-10) were found in the central area of the roundhouse, together with some crucible fragments (not illustrated).

Glass [3, fig. 9]. 1 complete and 2 halves of small yellow ring-beads of vitreous paste were found (no. 5). C M Piggott wrote a report on these and suggested a 1st/2nd century date for the Scottish examples [3, 104: 12].

Fired clay. 2 broken spindle whorls made of shaped potsherds (see also 'metalworking' above), and 1 possible perforated loom weight (no. 11).

Bone. Bone tools were conspicuous-ly absent.

Stone. Many pebble hammerstones and rubbing stones (the latter presumably pebble grinders), 1 broken whetstone and 1 abrader of pumice. From the entrance to the barn came a pivot stone [3, pl. V.3].

Flint and quartz. 3 flint flakes (nos. 12-14) and a quartz scraper (no. 15).

Mica. 1 bead or pendant.

Pottery. The excavator thought that the potsherds from the roundhouse fell naturally into two groups in terms of shape and decoration; the second group was found mainly in the upper hearth area. It is not clear if the figures show pottery from specific areas; the descriptive catalogue does not allocate the sherds to particular find spots.

Group 1 sherds were found in both Phases of occupation and consisted of Everted Rim jars ornamented with a zig-zag applied cordon just above the waist, and occasionally under the rim [3, fig. 5]. The decoration of concentric channelled arches above the cordon – so common at some sites – only appears here on two wall sherds [3, fig. 8, nos. 8, 85 and 86]. Also rim sherds of barrel-shaped urns, presumably of Vaul ware, and many footed bases of the same origin.

Group 2 sherds [3, fig. 7] were found mainly in the upper hearth area of Phase 2 and are of vessels which are almost exclusively of what we would now call Balevullin vases, a sub-type of Vaul ware vases distinguished by having an applied zig-zag cordon around the waist as well as elaborate geometric patterns of incised lines. The large rim sherd illustrated (no. 61) also has the impressions of a bronze ring-headed pin. These were presumably the latest vessels used in the roundhouse.

Also worth noting is an example of the sharply carinated early Iron Age vessel with “fine paste, sharp outline” [3, 99]; this is presumably a stray survivor of the style which appears in the 7th/6th centuries BC. Also what looks like a prototype for a Dun Cuier neck-cordoned jar, several pieces of which were found at a low level. This could suggest that this wheelhouse was established at a fairly late stage in the middle Iron Age

Dimensions (these had to be scaled off the site plan): internal diameter of roundhouse 8.22 – 8.53m (27-28 ft).

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NF 60 SE 2: 2. RCAHMS 1928, 136, no. 459: 3. Young 1952: 4. Scott 1951: 5. Armit 1992, 66-7: 6. Crawford 2002, 114, 1178, 121, 123-26: 7. Branigan 2003, 74: 8. Branigan and Foster 2002, 10, 79-80, 82, 91, 94, 105, 113, 133: 9. Clarke 1971, 50, no. 6: 10. Crawford 2002, 114, 117, 121, 123-26: 11. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1980, 42 (sherds): 12. Guido 1978, 181: 13. Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 92 (1958-59), 120 (donations): 14. Sharples and Parker Pearson, 1997, 256.

E W MacKie 2007