Site Event/Activity record EWE164 - Cill Donnain, South Uist, coring survey

Coring completed across this Cordoned Urn-period settlement mound only visible on the surface on its E side where it has been damaged by recent quarrying. Otherwise, it is buried beneath a thin layer of clean sand which previously separated it Middle Iron Age levels that were mostly excavated by Sheffield University between 1988-91. The Early Bronze Age settlement mound contains stratified deposits, surviving to a depth of almost a metre and covering an area of 23m SE-NW by 15m. More than 150m2 of stratified settlement deposits remain in situ within this mound, located on a dune ridge, dropping away 0.4-0.7m on its NE and S side. The coring programme also revealed that the depths of Middle Iron Age deposits increase from W to E, confirmation that the small wheelhouse excavation in 1988-91 was peripheral building constructed on the western edge of a much larger Middle Iron Age mound, the full dimensions of which are hidden under a large dune.