Monument record 893 - TOTA DUNAIG, VALLAY, NORTH UIST

NF77NE 8 7729 7603.

(Area : NF 773 761) Tota Dunaig is the local name for a slight elevation in the field immediately north of Vallay house. Partial excavation in an area some 20-30 yards in diameter revealed the foundations of two successive erections, one standing on kitchen-midden debris attributable to a still earlier period.
The structural remains were slight, their only special feature being a narrow recess within the west end with an interior doorway near the SE corner. An 'adjoining oval cell' 5 1/2 ft by 3ft, with a polished stone axe outside its east edge, was thought to be a burial structure. Excavation was not carried beyond a depth of 2 or 3ft but there were found a quartz hammerstone, pottery rims, fragments of two quernstones and part of a cut-marked cetacean bone. (E Beveridge 1911)
The finds are in the NMAS.
E Beveridge 1911; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1912 and 1922.

Tota Dunaig is probably a slight knoll at NF 7729 7603, north of the new Vallay House. There is no trace of antiquity to be seen and the name is not known locally.
Visited by OS (J T T) 22 June 1965.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 232-3, 269 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

PSAS, 1911-12, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 340 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9079.

PSAS, 1921-2, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 14 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9178.