Monument record 1311 - MAOL BHAN, BERNERAY

NF98SW 11 9090 8278.

(NF 9090 8278) Stone Cist Containing Human Remains found AD 1858 (NAT) OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

(See also NF98SW 31)

'Maol Bhan', an extensive sand-dune, has been almost entirely swept away by the wind, leaving two large hillocks, on the more southerly of which the cist published on the OS map was found.
The sides of these hillocks are covered with kitchen midden refuse, including animal bones, shells, handmade pottery and fire-fractured stones. On the summits and slopes are great quantities of dislodged stones now showing no structural arrangement. As many have been removed it is impossible to say if they formed only hut circles, or were earth-houses of the class found at Udal, North Uist (NF87NW 2).
Finds, some of which are in the NMAS. include bone implements, rough pottery, a bronze pin, and an iron pin.
RCAHMS 1928; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1915.

An extensive seach was made in the area from NF 906 830 to 912 826, but no trace of midden material was found on the slope of Maol Bhan, nor on any one of the numerous other sand-dunes around. Only one small hillock was found to contain a few stones forming no set pattern, and insufficient to assess their original purpose. Close-by there is a modern, semi-circular, shieling-type structure, c.2.0m in diameter and 0.8m high. No further information was obtained concerning this or of any hut circles in the area.
Visited by OS (R B) 19 June 1965.

RMS FC 252. Nail-headed pin without insets. Milled head, and bands of incised decoration on shank.
RMS FC 139. Square-facetted or bramble-headed pin.
L Laing 1973.

For another pin under the same accession number see NF98SW 16.

PSAS, 1914-15, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 208 (Bibliographic reference). SWE8963.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 45, No. 150 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

L R Laing, 1973b, Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 69, 71, Nos. 5, 70 (Bibliographic reference). SWE3785.