Monument record 1299 - ENSAY

NF98NE 6 9748 8681.
(NF 9748 8681) Burial Ground (NAT)
OS 6"map, (1965)

An old Burial Ground now almost disused. (Since no mention is made of a burial ground in association with the chapel at NF 9805 8660-(No 4) it is just possible this could be the site of a predecessor of that chapel).
Name Book 1877.

This burial ground was examined by a Professor Miles in 1967-8 and 158 skeletons removed, since which time it has been severely eroded revealing the opened graves and the graveyard wall, but no chapel. The last burial here was about 1935. A vault containing the burial of a person who died in 1887 is in ruins, revealing the coffin and skeletal remains.
Visited by OS (N K B) 4 July 1969.

Professor Miles commended excavating at this site in 1966. The burials are within an area c.30 yards square/near the centre of the circular burial ground demarcated by the remains of a wall of rounded stones. The burials in the upper layers had evidence of being coffined, all the deepest ones seem to have been coffinless. They were all buried in E-W orientation with heads to the West. At least two of the deepest ones were under stone slabs supported on boulders.
Some medieval pottery found nearby was not associated with the burials. (See NF98NE 9?).
In August 1971, whilst continuing his search for burials, Prof.Miles uncovered a building situated at the centre of the burial ground. This is probably an early chapel, which he refilled pending fuller investigation. The building is well below the level of the outer ring of boulders, therefore antedating the wall, which hitherto had been regarded as a very early primitive feature. Oriented E-W it's measurements were 20' x 10'3" and it was built of dry-stone slabs, the upper wall levels being c.2' thick but the lower 3-4' thick. The height of one side wall, from floor level, was c.8'.
Information contained in letters from A E W Miles (London University) to OS, 21 June 1971 and 5 August 1971.

Erosion of sand dune with cemetery on it. Finds include quantities of bone; pottery, plain and decorated; metal slag; a rubbed stone; a bronze/copper object 16.5 cms long by 1.5 cms wide by 1mm thick, slightly curved, possibly a blade.
M MacRae 1983.

M MacRae, 1983a, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 40 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13520.

A E W Miles, 1989, Brit Archaeol Rep (Bibliographic reference). SWE9135.

Name Book (County), 1998, Name Books of the Ordnance Survey, Book No. 5, 161 (Unpublished document). SWE4254.