Monument record 914 - BUAILE RISARY, BEN RISARY, NORTH UIST

NF77SE 11 7667 7291.

(Name: NF 7678 7288 - (OS 6"map, {1904} Dun, Buaile Risary (RCAHMS 1928). A large green mound, partially excavated by Beveridge. Beneath several ruined shielings a wall 32ft in diameter enclosed a central rectangular chamber (10ft by 8 1/2ft internally, with central hearth) with other chambers and a number of small, probably secondary, cells.
An annexe on the east side, 48ft by 23ft, contained part of another, but incomplete, enclosure 24ft in diameter. Near the centre of this area were traces of a second hearth. The annexe included a group of cells, varying from 30ins to 7ft long, connected by a short passage with the main structure to the south. Finds, including pottery, Viking-type iron rivets, stone and flint implements, are in the NMAS.
Outside this annexe, upon the northern summit of Buaile Bisara, are the foundations of a well built drystone house, of no great age. This contained modern pottery fragments, together with some similar to that found in the dun. Here was found a small pebble with incised lines, probably an amulet.
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904); E Beveridge 1911; RCAHMS 1928; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1912.

NF 7667 7291 Buaile Risary is a large green mound, the surface of which is covered by a large tumble of stone. It lies about halfway up the north slopes of Ben Risary.
On the south side of the mound is the feature described by Beveridge - a mutilated stony mound, overlaid by later buildings and shielings. It may have been a cairn but is too amorphous for classification.
Some 15.0m N of this feature are the outlines of an aisled round house, 7.3m in diameter, with an entrance 0.7m wide in the east side. On either side of the entrance are the remains of a radial wall.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
There are at least ten small shieling-type structures among the tumble of stone on Buaile Risary.
Visited by OS (W D J) 20 June 1965.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 209-12 plan (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

PSAS, 1911-12, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 335 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9079.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 61, No. 193 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.