Monument record 1150 - COILEAGAN AN UDAIL, NORTH UIST

NF87NW 1 8242 7843.

(NF 8242 7843) '... a ritual complex, of an orthostatic circle with associated cists amounting to a graveyard clearly extending well beyond the limits of this excavation,' was partially explored in 1964. It lies some 400ft due NW of the main mediaeval settlement at Udal (NF87NW 2). The complex appears to have been systematically robbed (so far as excavated at present) by the depositors of a large midden heap which abutts on to the ritual enclosure. Pottery fragments and the structures themselves indicate a Bronze-to-Iron Age dating. Excavation was abandoned as the discovery did not relate directly to the mediaeval settlement.
I A Crawford 1964.

Further evidence, but not yet conclusive, indicates a Neolithic-Iron Age burial complex.
Information in telecommunication from I A Crawford (School of Scottish Studies) to OS.

This site (RUX6) was excavated by I A Crawford, ahead of coastal erosion threat, over a series of field work seasons from 1974 - 1984. These investigations identified well stratified insitu deposits and structures. These layers represented the Late Neolithic and Early- Mid Bronze Age periods. Key features comprised of EBA cairns & cists with inhumations, and Neolithic houses with domestic & ritual aspects; significant environmental information was also gained from these layers.
KM (Arch Service) 2023

I. Crawford, Excavations at Coileagan an Udail (Unpublished document). SWE13416.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 89-90, No. 273 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

I. Crawford, 1964g, Preliminary Report of Excavations at Udal, 9 (Unpublished document). SWE13415.

R A Dodgson, 1993, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 420 (Bibliographic reference). SWE30924.

Beverley Ballin Smith, 2018, Life on the Edge: The Neolithic and Bronze Age of Iain Crawford's Udal, North Uist. (Monograph). SWE41320.