North Uist, Otternish, Rubh' A' Charnain Mhor
Cairn (Viking), Human Remains (Period Unassigned), Ship Burial (Viking)(Possible), Rivet(S) (Iron)(Viking)
Site Name North Uist, Otternish, Rubh' A' Charnain Mhor
Classification Cairn (Viking), Human Remains (Period Unassigned), Ship Burial (Viking)(Possible), Rivet(S) (Iron)(Viking)
Alternative Name(s) Carnan Mor; Rudh' A' Charnain Mhor
Canmore ID 10433
Site Number NF97NW 1
NGR NF 9043 7935
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10433
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF97NW 1 9043 7935.
(Area: NF 904 794) Partial examination of a cairn at Rudh' a' Charnain Mhoir upon the extreme point of Otternish, opposite Berneray Island, revealed the remains of a skeleton and typical iron rivets indicating the unburnt burial of a Norseman with his boat. It can be dated with certainty to before the 11th century. The site is 50 yards to the N of a smaller cairn marked by the 0S map 'Human Remains found AD 1870' (NF97NW 2) (E Beveridge 1911).
Nine iron boat-rivets of the common Viking form with heads and plates were found at Carnan Mor. Six of them are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS BT 1912)
E Beveridge 1911; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1912; H Shetelig 1940.
The remains of this greatly mutilated cairn, now a low, oval, grass-covered mound, c.0.3m high, with stones protruding, are at NF 9043 7935.
Visited by OS (J T T) 26 June 1965.
Field Visit (15 August 1914)
Viking Burials, Carnan Mhor, Otternish.
On the brow of the hill rising some 30 feet above Rudh' a Charnain Mhoir, the north-west corner of the Otternish peninsula, facing the island of Berneray, about i mile north-east ofPort nan Long, are several mounds of tumbled stones. Iron rivets of Viking type were noted.
About 100 yards to the south on the summit of the hill is a small cairn of stones, Carnan Beag, in which Viking rivets have also been found.
Both these sites have been rifled, and besides the rivets already noted, a number of glass beads and a hair comb of Viking type were recovered. A skeleton was also found in the first-mentioned burial.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 15 August 1914.
OS map: North Uist xxvi.
