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South Uist, Kildonan
Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name South Uist, Kildonan
Classification Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 9840
Site Number NF72NW 22
NGR NF 74927 27559
NGR Description Centred NF 74927 27559
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9840
- Council Western Isles
- Parish South Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF72NW 22 749 276.
A group of rectangular ruined buildings in Glen Kildonan was surveyed by students from Sheffield University in 1993. They are different from the small structures normally associated with shieling-mounds, and may be a relatively early shieling.
MS 595/9.
Excavation (18 June 2013 - 22 June 2013)
NF 7480 2750 An excavation was undertaken.
The Kildonan School Shielings complex consists of a group of four ruined turf- and stone-built structures, two larger and two smaller , which, based on their surface structural remains, are likely to have functioned as dwellings for people staying at an upland grazing site. All four ruins are located on substantial grassy mounds , which suggest multiple phases of site use, resulting in a significant build-up of occupation deposits and/or earlier ruins.
Two 1x1 m assessment trenches were opened in Structures 1 (one of the larger buildings) and 2 (one of the smaller buildings). After the removal of the overlying turf and stone collapse layers, the test trenches were excavated into the uppermost occupation deposits to expose the floor layers resulting from the last phase(s) of the structures' use. The floor layers in both structures appeared laminated, consisting of thin interdigitated surfaces, which proved impossible to excavate as separate contexts. Floor layers were separated by cleaner and less compact layers of sand, possibly indicative of short abandonment phases. This corroborates well with the suspected seasonal nature of the site's occupation. Small hearth features associated with substantial peat ash accumulations were uncovered in both Structures 1 and 2, indicating that they were most likely used as small residential spaces, at least in the last phases of their occupation. To gain an understanding of the nature and the duration of the site's occupation, a 1x2 m assessment trench was also opened into the grassy mound on which the ruin of Structure 1 is situated. This assessment trench was excavated down to B horizon of original soil. It exposed horizontal lenses of a possible turf wall overlying a raised anthropogenic soil made up of soil enhanced with additions of turves and domestic hearth waste. The turf wall may be the remnants of the wall enclosing the site, or it can belong to earlier structures no longer visible on the ground.
Information from P. Kupiec, K. Milek and S. Dutta - University of Aberdeen, 2013.
(Source: DES)
OASIS ID: universi17-160165
Measured Survey (27 March 2025)
Measured survey of Kildonan School shielings using survey-grade GNSS and UAV photography with ground targets (for Structure from Motion). Information to follow.
