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South Uist, Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag
Aisled Roundhouse(S) (Iron Age)
Site Name South Uist, Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag
Classification Aisled Roundhouse(S) (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) Site 10
Canmore ID 9947
Site Number NF74SE 7
NGR NF 7577 4038
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9947
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- Council Western Isles
- Parish South Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF74SE 7 7577 4038.
A low mound on the machair in front of Drimore Farm, (NF 768 403) South Uist, was excavated by the Ministry of Works. An aisled roundhouse, about 30ft in diameter and containing twelve radial piers was uncovered. Occupation covered a long period. A second roundhouse, 17ft across opened directly off the first to the north-east. A long passage leading east was a composite structure with three periods of building. There were rebates for a door, a small cell on one side and a kiln-like structure at the far end. Finds included potter, bone objects, quern fragments and a piece of iron, possibly part of a plough-share.
Fairhurst notes "there is little or no sign of late comers confusing the record of the wheelhouse culture".
H Fairhurst 1956.
(NF 7577 4038) Two aisled round houses excavated by Dr Fairhurst in 1956.
Information from MoPBW to OS.
NF 7577 4037 All that is now visible at the site are the outlines of the two aisled round-houses and the passage and cell on the east side of the larger house. These are outlined by/continuous or intermittent single courses of stones barely 0.3m high. Eleven of the radial piers of the larger house are visible. Near the site are several piles of stone debris.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (W D J) 14 May 1965.
Excavation (1956)
A low mound on the machair in front of Drimore Farm, (NF 768 403) South Uist, was excavated by the Ministry of Works. An aisled roundhouse, about 30ft in diameter and containing twelve radial piers was uncovered. Occupation covered a long period. A second roundhouse, 17ft across opened directly off the first to the north-east. A long passage leading east was a composite structure with three periods of building. There were rebates for a door, a small cell on one side and a kiln-like structure at the far end. Finds included potter, bone objects, quern fragments and a piece of iron, possibly part of a plough-share.
Fairhurst notes "there is little or no sign of late comers confusing the record of the wheelhouse culture".
H Fairhurst 1956.
Publication Account (2007)
NF74 1 A' CHEARDACH BEAG ('Drimore 1', 'Drimore Farm', 'The Little Smiddy')
NF/7577 4037
This dug-out aisled wheelhouse (with a smaller roundhouse attached as annexe) at Drimore in South Uist was excavated by H Fairhurst in 1956 as part of the rescue work undertaken by the then Ministry of Works before the establish-ment of the Army rocket range. The site was a low mound on the machair and is unusual in having yielded what is probably the remains of an iron ard point. The Gaelic name means 'the little smithy ' which is curious in that another unusual feature – an iron furnace – was found in front of the entrance. What follows is a summary of the excavation report [2].
1. The excavations
The mound stood at the eastern or inland edge of the half-mile-wide belt of grass-covered sand which runs along the west coast of the island. Excavations revealed that the environment had changed since the site had been occupied; for example the water table had risen and the occupation floor rested directly on top of it. The two houses had been excavated into the sand so that the walls were simple linings of single courses of stones backing against the sides of the pits. One would expect these walls to have been about 1.8m high originally but most of the surrounding sand had blown away so that the houses were much reduced in height compared, for example, with Kilpheder (NF72 3).
The larger roundhouse (no. 1): the face of the wall – one course thick – was approximately vertical and stood to a maximum height of 1.22m (4 ft); the internal diameter varied from 9.51m (31 ft 2 in) from north-north-west to south-south-east to 8.69m (28 ft 6 in) from north-east to south-west. The radial piers and the surrounding wall were founded on the same clean sand that lay behind the wall, but there was usually a layer of darker sand immediately behind the stone facing which was doubtless disturbed sand packing. Only on the north-east, around the entrance, did the stone wall thicken to 92 - 122cm (3 - 4 ft) and there was a suggestion of an outside face here. Presumably the otherwise subterranean structure partly emerged from the sand at this point to allow access to the level entrance passage. Alternatively there may have been a ramp sloping upwards further out.
Twelve free-standing stone piers, varying in length, were found and the 'aisle' between their outer ends and the wall varied in width between 28 and 81cm (11 - 32 in); in five cases the aisle had been blocked with later masonry. No lintels bracing the piers against the wall were found so any such should have been at a higher level; they were in place in the smaller house (below). The aisle does not seem to have been other than a structural feature and indeed two whole pots were standing in the aisles on either side of Bay V when the stonework in this area finally collapsed. Two of the piers flanked the entrance passage and extended it inwards; the piers also tended to widen as they rose [3, pl. 3]. A passage only 59cm (1 ft 10 in) wide led from Bay XI through the wall into the second, smaller roundhouse.
The entrance of the main roundhouse faced east and was 1.0m wide at its inner end with the sides only a single course thick; it had presumably been roofed with stone lintels originally. The plan (Illus. 9.088) shows a door-frame near the inner end but this is not described. The wall of the south side of the passage was about 90cm thick at the inner end and a small cell had been dug out of the sand just beyond this, with access to it from the passage. The foundations of what seemed to be an earlier, stone-lined forecourt area were found in front of the entrance, and the walling of the entrance overrode these. Also in this forecourt area was an earlier iron-smelting furnace, under the floor of the passage. Thus the entrance to Roundhouse 1 had been laid on top of an earlier structure which probably included the furnace.
When excavated most of the bays proved to have a similar, simple stratigraphy. The floor consisted of 20-25cm (8-10 in) of brown, laminated sand resting directly on clean sand and underneath stones fallen from the building. Small patches of greenish-yellow clay found throughout the floor deposits were interpreted as material fallen from the roof – perhaps the sealing from between the stone slabs (assuming that the bays had stone roofs). There was no paving on the floor and a kerb across the inner ends of the bays was found in only five out of the twelve. The details of what was found in each bay are given in the report [3, 77 ff.]; the iron ard point was found in Bay III and the two large pots in Bay V but otherwise there were evidently few clues to the uses of these areas.
The central area had a more compact floor level of blackened earth and peat ash. A small paved hearth, set in clay, was in the centre with a second probable hearth a little to the north, this time with a kerb. South-west of the first hearth, and partly surrounding it, was an arc of 17-20 unburnt bones set into the sand; each was half of a red deer mandible set with the teeth downwards [3, pl. 4, top].
A study of the fallen stones inside the house suggested that long, lintel-like slabs were usually present near the inner ends of the piers [3, pl. 6, bottom] though they were usually not long enough actually to bridge the pier ends. However if one was balanced on each pier end the others might have rested on the ends of these and so formed a continuous architrave similar to that deduced at Clettraval (NF77 2); direct evidence in favour of this idea was found in the smaller roundhouse (below). No evidence was found for the idea that the central area had been roofed with a corbelled stone dome resting on the piers and on the architrave; the radial piers could not have supported such a weight and in any case there were far too few stones in the central area to be the remains of such a dome. Since no post-holes were found in the central area it seems that there must have been a conical thatched roof with a framework of radial rafters lashed together at the apex and with their lower ends resting on the architrave.
The annexe (Roundhouse 2): the second circular dugout building – accessible only through the first – was unusually small, having an overall diameter of 5.34m (17 ft 6 in) and a central area only 2.75m (9 ft) across. The house was only half excavated and, since the entrance is only from the main house, it was presumably later (or built at the same time). The top of the wall in the unexcavated half was uncovered and there was no sign of another door. There appear to have been only five free-standing piers (two in the unexplored half), making five wide bays; the floor was of sand and unlevelled, forming a saucer-like hollow.
One of the piers – 1.20m (3 ft 10 in) high – still had a cross slab in position on its inner end, 71cm (2 ft 4 in) long [3, pl. 7]; this presumably formed part of a continuous stone architrave (see 'Discussion' below). The lintels of the aisle were clearly visible in the debris. Bay I had a filling of interlocked stones which implied that it had once had a corbelled roof but the width of the trapezoidal space was 2.7m (9 ft) at the aisle which seems a lot for a a drystone roof to bridge. There was no central hearth.
Evidence of changes of plan: when the cell opening off the entrance was excavated it was found to overlie the stone foundations of what was presumed to be an earlier forecourt, presumably fronting a shorter entrance passage [3, pl. 9]. At the outer end of the entrance passage were more revetments, suggesting that a similar forecourt was built later, further east than the dismantled one.
The furnace: in this later forecourt area was a sunken, boat-shaped pit lined with stones which was interpreted as an iron furnace [3, pl. 10]. The pit narrowed into what was presumably a flue at the inner end. It had evidently been used prior to the construction of the roundhouse and had been damaged by the building of the revetments of the forecourt of the latter. Also a furnace would hardly have been in use immediately in front of a roundhouse door. No slag was found but a number of pieces of vitrified clay were recovered, with large pieces being concentrated on the bottom of the pit. Analysis of these fragments indicated that a temperature of 1150 – 1200 deg. C were achieved, which would imply a forced draught and bellows. The absence of slag (except for one piece in Bay II of the larger house) suggests that the furnace was not for smelting iron ore but was for smithing – that is, heating and re-heating iron implements as they were hammered to shape on an anvil. The Gaelic name of the site thus seems remarkably appropriate. A pottery kiln is another obvious possibility,
2. Discussion
Architecture and roofing. The evidence for the roofing of wheelhouses found at this site is important. As at Clettraval (NF77 2) there seems to have been a continuous architrave of stone lintels running round the inner ends of the piers at a height above the floor which is not specified but which seems to have been about 4.2m (4 ft). This is a different system from that found at Kilpheder (NF72 3) where the piers rise up much higher and where the bays probably had stone roofs of overlapping slabs. However in both cases there seems to have been a ring of stone on top of the inner ends of the radial piers – somewhat higher up at Kilpheder – which could have supported the inner rafters of a conical roof.
The absence of post-holes in the central area of the main house at A' Cheardach Beag seems to confirm that the stone architrave on the piers served the equivalent function of the inner ring of massive posts in Iron Age wooden roundhouses further south – that is, to provide the main support for long rafters coming down from the apex of the roof to a lighter outer wall of posts. In the case of this type of roundhouse there were presumably main rafters coming down onto the architrave with a set of longer, lighter ones higher up, coming down from the same apex and resting on the sand just outside the stone facing of the outer wall. In this way rain would have drained from the thatch into the sand outside the house. No doubt there were vertical supports on the architrave holding up the upper rafters.
Alternatively the main rafters may have been at the upper level (directly supporting the cross-beams under the thatch) and have been supported about halfway down their lengths by shorter, solid, upright posts resting on the architrave. This seems a simpler and more probable arrangement.
Thus it seems clear that the radial stone piers did serve as alternatives to the ring of stout posts which are usually found in large Iron Age wooden roundhouses, and also inside at least some brochs and probably in all. A wheelhouse could therefore be said to be a specialised local stone version of the standard large Iron Age wooden house.
Material culture. The excavator commented that the site " …offers a typical example of a Wheelhouse com-plex from which extraneous elements can be very largely excluded." [3, 106]. This is a slight exaggeration. In the first place both the Vaul ware vases and the 'coarse ware' urns are widespread styles in the Western Isles and on Skye and Tiree; this roundhouse is therefore part of a much wider cultural complex and Fairhurst's phrase is misleading in that it gives the impression of extreme parochialism. Secondly, although high-status trade goods like glass beads and bronze pins were not found, the possibly ivory dagger pommel is not only a fairly common in Atlantic Scotland and Ireland but surely also means that a high-status male was on the site at some stage. One can reasonably assume that the possession of iron swords and daggers with ivory pommels was the prerogative of the Iron Age tribal gentry and not of every tribesman.
Social stratification? A’ Cheardach Beag itself could be indicating that the owners of the roundhouse farms were not themselves all of equal status. This site, despite the bone pommel, seems rather impoverished (in terms of high-status objects) compared for example with its neighbour A Cheardach Mhor (NF74 2, below). There are none of the luxury trade objects which were found at the latter site, like yellow glass ring-beads, iron pins with a bone ball-head, zoo-morphic pins and Everted Rim pottery.
However it is likely that this wheelhouse was inhabited before A Cheardach Mhor was built so that the material cultures of the two sites may not really comparable. The absence of Everted Rim ware from the former, and its abundance at the latter, could well mean that A Cheardach Beag was inhabited before the 2nd/3rd centuries and A’ Cheardach Mhor after that time.
3. The finds (in the Hunterian Museum)
The pottery: the great majority (75%) of the 960 potsherds found were immediately under the turf, presumably because of the heavy damage the building had suffered in the past; thus most of the sherds were effectively unstratified. The excavator divided the sherds into 'wheelhouse' and 'coarse wares', though the distinction appears to be based on ceramic type rather than on stratigraphy or association. There was no sign of any occupation later than the middle Iron Age.
'Wheelhouse pottery' included none of the classic Everted Rim wares found at Dun Mor Vaul (NM04 4) and, in secondary broch levels, at Dun Ardtreck (NG33 2) and Dun Vulan (NF72 1) but was – judging from the illustrations [3, figs. 5, 7 and 8] – essentially the same as the Vaul ware vases from Tiree and decorated with geometrical patterns in incised lines. Some sherds had the applied cordon also and are presumably Balevullin vases.
The term coarse ware is applied to vessels which look like Vaul ware urns [3, fig. 6] except that all seem to be plain and several are reconstructed as bowls rather than as barrel shapes. Almost certainly these 'bowls' are the result of misjudging the angle of the rim when the sherd is small. There is no real evidence for a bowl shape in the Scottish Atlantic Iron Age (in the sense that no large fragments of suitable rims have been found in, or restored into, this shape); such a vessel would require a ring base to sit on a table and such do not exist. In fact the 'coarse ware' from this site seems to include both plain Vaul ware urns (relatively smooth-surfaced) and also Dunagoil urns with many grits incorporated in the fabric, giving the surfaces a knobbly look.
Iron objects: the major discovery was an ard share, or perhaps a spade [3, pl. 12], which was found in the south-east corner of Bay III in the larger house. The socket is flat and open to the front but it is not possible to reconstruct the original dimensions. Fenton describes it as a “blade or share” [2, 272, fig. 4.8 and note 1]. An exactly similar but more complete object was found at Leckie broch (site NS69 2).
Bone objects [3, fig. 10]: the most unusual object was the pommel of a small sword or a dagger of the standard Atlantic Iron Age type, found in Bay V of Wheelhouse 2 (no. 1). It is described as being of “smooth bone” but may be of marine ivory. In addition there were 2 long spatulae (with one flattened end (nos. 6 and 7), 1 double-pointed fish gorge (no. 3), 1 probable netting needle (no. 8), 3 awls made from splinters (nos. 2, 4 and 5) and several other worked fragments.
Antler objects included several probable handles (nos. 10 and 12), 1 quern handle (no. 11), showing that the disc querns were rotated with a long pole pivoted above the centre of the stones (this was found in Bay I of the large house), and several worked fragments.
Whalebone objects included several large blocks and many burnt fragments.
Stone objects: these included 5 or 6 fragments of presumably discoid rotary querns (not illustrated), 2 broken mortars, 1 complete and 1 broken socket stone (presumably pivot stones for doors), 2 cylindrical probable pestles and 2 rounded pumice fragments, presumably abraders.
Many years after the excavation was completed a fragment of a penannular brooch – possibly late 8th/early 9th century in date – was found on the site [6]. It is of copper alloy with gold gilt and obviously belongs to a time several centuries after the abandonment of the wheelhouse.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NF 74 SE 7: 2. Fenton 1963: 3. Fairhurst 1971: 4. Armit 1992, 65: 5. Crawford 2002, 114, 117-18, 121 and 123: 6. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 2003, 132: 7. Armit 1997a, 251: 8. Giles and Parker Pearson 1999, 223-4: 9. Mulville, Parker Pearson, Sharples, Smith and Chamberlain 2003, 28-30: 10. Sharples 2003, 151-2.
E W MacKie 2007
