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Monach Islands, Ceann Ear
Cist(S) (Early Bronze Age), Cremation (Early Bronze Age), Unidentified Pottery (Pottery)(Early Bronze Age)
Site Name Monach Islands, Ceann Ear
Classification Cist(S) (Early Bronze Age), Cremation (Early Bronze Age), Unidentified Pottery (Pottery)(Early Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Heisker Islands; North Uist
Canmore ID 9747
Site Number NF66SW 2
NGR NF 64 62
NGR Description NF c. 64 62
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9747
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
MONACH ISLES (off North Uist) also known as HEISKER A group of five low-lying sandy isles, of which the largest two, Ceann Iar and Ceann Ear are linked at low tide via the smaller isle of Sibhinis. Flanking these are Stocay to the east and Shillay to the west. Owned by the monastery of Iona from the late 14 th century, the group was referred to in 1575 as 'Heisker of the Nuns', and there is a reference to a monastic settlement on Shillay, although the precise location of these religious outposts has been forgotten. It was here that Lady Grange was kept prisoner in 1732 -4, having been kidnapped from her Edinburgh lodgings by a party of Highlanders whose Jacobite plot she had overheard and threatened to disclose. Her keeper, the tenant of Heisker, allowed her to attempt an escape, but she was betrayed and moved to St. Kilda. As with many other satellite Hebridean isles, the population of Heisker waxed and waned over the centuries. By 1810 it had dwindled to nothing, but was replenished during the Clearances and had risen to 13 5 by 1891. In 1928 there were only eight families remaining, and by 1942 all had left. Shillay is now owned by the Northern Lighthouse Board, the other islands by North Uist Estates.
CEANN EAR is the largest of the Monach Isles, with a small 'village' overlooking Port Ruadh. Schoolhouse, c.1874 (now a bothy); missionhouse, c.1890s, and ruins of houses, some of which, unusually, had internal grain drying kilns in the Shetland manner.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NF66SW 2 c. 64 62
Martin (M Martin 1884), writing in 1703, refers to a 'stone chest' found on the Heisker Islands 'having an earthen pitcher in it which was full of bones'. When Beveridge (E Beveridge 1911) explored the area he found a cist containing human bones near the NW corner of Ceann Ear, close to which was a kitchen-midden, and he was informed of a group of six others upon the same island.
Megaw and Simpson (J V S Megaw and D D A Simpson 1963) list Beveride's finds as cists ('not certainly "short"') and Martin's discovery as closely paralleled by Childe's Type C graves (V G Childe 1946).
M Martin 1884; E Beveridge 1911; V G Childe 1946; J V S Megaw and D D A Simpson 1963.
The cists and midden were not located.
Visited by OS (J T T) 18 June 1965.
Note (2020)
Monarch Islands
This burial site in Western Isles was a focus for funerary practices in the Bronze Age period, between 2200 BC and 1501 BC.
Prehistoric Grave Goods project site ID: 60148
CANMORE ID: 9747
Total no. graves with grave goods: 1
Total no. people with grave goods: 1
Total no. grave goods: 1
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 60048
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Pot
Materials used: Pottery
Current museum location: Unknown
Further details, the full project database and downloads of project publications can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5284/1052206
An accessible visualisation of the database can be found here: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/grave-goods/map/
