Monument record 872 - BROWNIE'S STONE, VALLAY, NORTH UIST

NF77NE 17 7855 7631.

"Brownies Stone" and Earth-house. Beveridge investigated the earth-house (NF 7855 7631) 'on a slight knoll between the modern tomb and the foundations of an old barn or dwelling', 30 yards SW of St Mary's Chapel (NF77NE 6).
It consisted of a curved wall 10 yards N-S, 12 to 18ins below the surface. No trace of the opposite wall could be found. Two weak transverse walls abutted at right angles to the east. Finds included pottery and midden remains.
M Martin (1934) describes the Brownies Stone (? NF 7851 7629) as a thin flat stone 'below' the chapels of St Mary and St Utan. He notes that the custom of offering milk to it on Sundays had ceased. It is not mentioned by the RCAHMS.
E Beveridge 1911; M Martin 1934.

No trace of the earth-house or of the Brownie's Stone was found during field investigation.
Visited by OS (W D J) 22 June 1965.

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

Possibly from this site; alternatively NF77NW 4 or NF77NE 10.

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 67 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 117-18 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

L R Laing, 1973b, Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 71, No. 66 (Bibliographic reference). SWE3785.

Centre for Field Archaeology, 2005, Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, North Uist (Bibliographic reference). SWE41070.