An RCAHMS archaeological team has completed a detailed survey of the virtually-inaccessible island of Borerary, in the St Kilda archipelago, uncovering evidence of a farming community date possible to the Iron Age.
Read more →Starting next week (25 Aug) a team from Durham University Department of Archaeology will be in Uig to investigate some of the archaeological sites in the area, reviewing excavations from 10 years ago and preparing a publication. Two public events.
Read more →Last week the Chessmen were featured on the BBC as part of the British Museum’s History of the World in 100 Objects, a superbly imaginative series of short and engaging lectures from Neil Macgregor. Of the Chessman he says: [Bobby] Fischer declared “chess is war on a board”, and at that moment in history it [...]
Read more →By long and solid tradition in Uig, the spot where the Uig Chessmen were found in 1831 is held to be the Bealach Ban, a hollow in the dunes in Ardroil. In November of last year, a paper by Dr David Caldwell et al in Mediæval Archaeology proposed that, on the evidence of the Ordnance [...]
Read more →From the National Trust for Scotland website: The National Trust for Scotland is recruiting for an Archaeologist based in Inverness and on St Kilda. St Kilda has an outstanding historic environment dominated by 19th & 20th century remains with a time-depth that belies the archipelagos remote North Atlantic position and it is the only mixed [...]
Read more →This is the final section of an interesting and detailed piece on the Pygmies Isle (first mentioned by Dean Monro in 1549 as having been inhabited by “little people”) near the Butt of Lewis , published by WC Mackenzie in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland, 13 March 1905 (vol XXXIX, p257). It’s [...]
Read more →[singlepic=1074,429] From Dave Roberts, first published in Uig News. Thanks to Andrew McVean for the photo of Carol Knott excavating at Kneep Headland. In the middle of January fragments of human bones began to appear in large numbers on the surface of the sand at Kneep headland. The location was very close to the three [...]
Read more →[singlepic=936,388] The cause of my sadness is the mill’s decline, Not getting what I need for my baking. -Calum Ruairidh Bhàin (Calum Mackay, Bragar) The Norse Mills of Lewis by Dr Finlay Macleod (Acair, 2009) is surely the most comprehensive volume imaginable on our horizontal mills – including their construction and use, context in world [...]
Read more →[singlepic=863,385] A stone mould for a crusie, an oil lamp of ancient design once in common use throughout the Hebrides.This mould, of unknown provenance, is in our museum collection but unfortunately we don’t have a crusie itself, much as we would love to. (This piece is the first in an occasional series on objects in [...]
Read more →[singlepic=844,580,233,,center] A number of archaeological finds collected by the McVean family in Uig and handed to Museum nan Eilean for Treasure Trove are on loan to Uig Museum and currently on display. Several of the artefacts were found at Mealista eroding from a midden on the beach. There is a bronze-age barbed and tanged arrowhead made of [...]
Read more →From the BBC website: Scientific evidence of an ancient invasion of Scotland from Ireland may have been uncovered by DNA techniques. Researchers from Edinburgh University said studies of Scots living on Islay, Lewis, Harris and Skye were found to have strong links with Irish people. Early historical sources recount how the Gaels came from Ireland [...]
Read more →Places are still available on a survey training workshop being held in Bernera on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 March. The workshop by Scotland’s Rural Past supports a community archaeological survey which will record what remains of the old village at Bosta. Participants will learn how to identify buildings, use a plane table, complete survey [...]
Read more →The definitive short guide to our Uig Chessmen, found in Ardroil in 1831, is The Lewis Chessmen, by James Robinson of the British Museum, which addresses aspects of their discovery, design and likely provenance, and also the history of chess. Of our little family of courtly Vikings, the berserkers are the most intriguing. From the [...]
Read more →The Lewis & Harris Archaeology group is offering free training sessions in archaeological survey skills, including using GPS, plane tables and alidades to map sites. The sessions will take place on 21 Feb at Garrabost and 10-11 March at Bosta. For more information please ring Maggie on 07788 966292.
Read more →[singlepic=424,366] Susan and Keith Stringer came across evidence of a grave in the dunes above Traigh na Berie, which on excavation was found to contain a crouch burial (in the picture, in the trench at the foot of the stick). From Hebrides News: A human skeleton thought to be 4000 years old has been discovered [...]
Read more →A new degree-level archaeology module exploring the impact of the Vikings on the North Atlantic region between 700 and 1300 AD begins Tuesday 27 January at Lews Castle College in Stornoway. The course runs for 10 weeks and there are no formal entry requirements. For further information see the college webpage. The course will be [...]
Read more →An article by Mary Beith, first published in the Scotsman in July 1990. Thanks to Mary for the opportunity to republish it. A group of architects and others at Manchester University who had been devoting a great deal of time and thought to devising the environmentally ideal house of the future were understandably well pleased [...]
Read more →From Hebrides News, 20 October 2008: Archaeologists working on St Kilda, the National Trust for Scotland’s dual World Heritage Site have discovered a cross-inscribed slab that had previously gone unnoticed on the island. Staff from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) found the cross on a piece of stone [...]
Read more →A mysterious cave full of swords was once discovered on Mealisval, but the could not be found again. Dave Roberts gave the story of the discovery of the cave in an article for Uig News and here gives a range of possible explanations. In the Iron Age (2000 years ago) people often deposited weapons made [...]
Read more →The Morgail Beehives (NB 131199), a group of corbelled huts of unknown date, are described thus by Historic Scotland: Group of corbelled “bee-hive” type shielings, built in remote moorland close to a stream, above Abhainn a Loin. Only one cell had roof intact at time of inspection (1989). Building date not know, but likely to [...]
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