Monument record 865 - SITHEAN AN ALTAIR, VALLAY, NORTH UIST

NF77NE 10 7681 7616.

(Area : NF 769 762) About 30 yds to the SE of Sithean an Altair (NF77NE 9), on the island of Vallay, a slight mound was examined by Beveridge. Two small cists were found immediately beneath the loose stones on the surface while, at a lower level, were remains of an earth-house, sufficiently complete to show the outline of its original plan. Fragments of a large craggan were found on the floor of the S chamber and a vertebral segment of a whale was found, set upright, in the floor of the east chamber. Other finds included a complete craggan, objects of deerhorn and bone, hammerstones, pottery fragments, etc.
E Beveridge 1911.

At NF 7681 7616 there is a low sandy mound, 11.0m by 6.0m., with several stones protruding, some of them earth-fast, probably the site of this earth-house.
Visited by OS (J T T) 22 June 1965.

RMS GT 406. Square-facetted or bramble-headed pin, found in an earth-house.
L Laing 1973.

Possibly from this site; alternatively NF77NW 4 or NF77NE 17.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 118-121 plan, illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, xlii (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

L R Laing, 1973b, Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 53-71 (Bibliographic reference). SWE3785.