Mirabilis.ca, a source of all sorts of historical news, if there can be such a thing, points to a theory reported on Discovery about the reason for Viking settlements in Britain. We know of course that there was what is described by Ian Armit as a “blending of cultural tradition” in the Western Isles, where [...]
Read more →One of the wheelhouses, if that’s what they are, that were exposed at very low tide on Traigh na Berie (Reef) last February has emerged again, having grown a beard. There are more stones visible this time, some barnacled and all sharp-edged blocks of various sizes, marooned in a mile of otherwise unbroken beach.
Read more →From the Comhairle SMR (Sites and Monuments Record.) A Bronze Age (2350BC-700BC) cairn was identified at NB045338, on the point of Tolanais overlooking Traigh Uig. Two small assessment trenches were opened on the southern of two large mounds, in order to determine which features of the site were artificial, and to date these, if possible. The mound [...]
Read more →A letter to the Gazette on 15 October 1917, by “DJM”, Donald J Macleod, Inspector of Schools (not DJ Maciver as previously indicated.) ‘Neiseach’ [from a previous correspondence] maintains there are no pre-Norse Celtic remains in our island. That is not so, I may be able, in a limited way to illustrate at first hand. [...]
Read more →CE Uig walked out to the shielings at Gearraidh an Uisge and Gearraidh Thodail, both used turn-about by Kneep until just before the war. At Gearraidh an Uisge (NB106272) there are the two substantial structures (the later built by Baxter in the 1930s), at least one older one nearby and the scant remains of two [...]
Read more →NB 10447 37700. The remains of a small church known as St Peter’s Church, on Traigh na Cille, Pabbay Mòr, in Loch Roag. The surviving fabric is mediaeval in date but the Pabbay place-name would suggest that there has been an early medieval church somewhere on the island. A few plain marker stones are [...]
Read more →The early Christian chapel or teampull Taigh a’Bheannaich is situated a mile south of Gallan Head (NB 03872 37898) near the headland called Am Beannachadh (The Blessing Place). The interior dimensions of the chapel are approximately 5.5m x 3.3m and the walls are partially collapsed. The remains of a dozen small cellular buildings surround the [...]
Read more →Around 8 February 2008, clusters of stones began to emerge from the otherwise unbroken sand in the middle of Traigh na Berie (Reef Beach) on the Valtos peninsula. Unusual activity on the beach and very low winter tides exposed groups of rocks that had not been seen before. They are certainly a structure of some sort, [...]
Read more →Some pictures (thanks Jutta) of the excavation of the Iron-age wheelhouse at Kneep over several years in the late 1980s. The wheelhouse was completely buried in the dunes at the edge of Kneep beach but was exposed after erosion from winter storms. The site consisted of two wheelhouses – one never completed – and was occupied ca. 200BC-200AD. The [...]
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