Yell, Sands Of Breckon

HP50NW 1.01 centred HP 5285 0545

Sites recorded in Area B of the field survey and excavation. The 1982 field survey and 1983 excavation were funded by Historic Scotland in response to continual wind and marine erosion. The survey area in total is over 20ha in extent, with 42 archaeologically significant sites recorded. Of the sites surveyed, the following were excavated in Area B to avoid destruction by erosion:

HP 5286 0547 Mound (Site 30)

HP 5281 0545-5286 0536 Wall (Site 35)

HP 5280 0545 Cairn (Site 36)

HP 5275 0540-5277 0546 Wall (Site 40)

HP 5278 0546 Enclosure (Site 41)

Sites previously recorded in Area B:

HP 5287 0540 Stone setting, interpreted by RCAHMS as a Neolithic / Bronze Age house (HP50NW 1.00)

HP 5276 0541 Stone setting, interpreted by RCAHMS as a Neolithic / Bronze Age house (HP50NW 1.00)

HP 5286 0556 No trace remains of the cists excavated in 1923 (HP50NW 6)

The purpose of the field survey and excavation at the Sands of Breckon was two-fold. Objectives were to identify and retrieve information from remains under threat from erosion, but also to study archaeological stratigraphy within windblown sand.

The Sands of Breckon is an unstable environment with a cylindrical pattern of sand erosion and accumulation. The archaeological remains within the windblown sand are unstratified, making interpretation difficult, as structures and finds have little, or no, context. The interpretation of and protection of archaeological remains within windblown sands is discussed in the report.

There is evidence for funerary, settlement and agricultural activity, dating from prehistory to 1878. Site 36 provides a rare radiocarbon dated example of Iron Age funerary practice. The individual was interred within a cist surrounded by a radial cairn. Other possible examples of funerary practice are the two low mounds of quartzite pebbles (Sites 30 and 39). The stone settings of Site 22 are re-interpreted as the basal stones of longs cists (rather than as settlement remains - HP50W 11). However, the pottery assemblage from Site 22 indicates Iron Age settlement not yet located on the Sands of Breckon.

The excavation archive from Yell, Sands of Breckon has been catalogued. The archive consists of manuscripts, negatives and slides from the 1983 excavation, plus drawings from the 1982 survey. Unfortunately the paper and photographic archive from the 1982 field survey and the drawings from the 1983 excavation were missing at time of cataloguing.

Historic Scotland Archive Project (SW) 2002