Monument record 1388 - GARBH EILEAN, SHIANT ISLANDS

NG49NW 2 412 983

W J Watson (1926) mentions an 'Annait' in the Shiant Islands ('the Holy Isles'), presumably in the vicinity of Airidhean na h'Annaid - NG 412 983.
On the W side of Eilean na Kily - Island of the Cell - which is either Eilean an Tighe or Eilean Garbh, MacCulloch (J MacCulloch 1824) describes '...a ruinous square enclosure, the remains of a house...The smallness of this building makes it probable that it was really the cell of some ascetic monk or hermit.'
W J Watson 1926; J MacCulloch 1824

At Airidhean na h'Annaid, a sheltered shelf on the otherwise exposed and rugged Eilean Garbh, there is a sheepfank which overlies earler buildings including, probably, the 'cell' seen by MacCulloch.
The earlier structures have been severely robbed during the construction to the sheepfank. The most clearly defined feature is a D-shaped enclosure (?cashel) 28.0m NNW-SSE by 23.0m transversely within a boulder-faced rubble wall, 1.3m in thickness, which is situated on a steep slope and overlooked by a rock face immediately to the W. In the SW corner of the enclosure the ruins of a rectangular building can be traced, sunk slightly below ground level, and measuring internally 3.8m, N-S by 3.0m transverely, with a crude recess in the NE corner (probably MacCulloch's 'cell', possibly a shieling hut). Contiguous with and NE of this building are the foundations of a semi-circular, turf-covered wall, 1.1m in thickness, apparently the remains of a circular structure, about 3.5m in internal diameter. Without excavation it is impossible to be certain of the nature of this site, but it is probably of early Christian monastic or eremitic origin.
Visited by OS (N K B) 7 July 1969

desktop assessment, no survey
Barrowman 2005, 72-73

On Rough Island two sites RI 2 (NG 4166 9825; NMRS NG 49 NW 8) and RI 41 (NG 4117 9829; NMRS NG 49 NW 2), were evaluated with small trenches to gain dating material.
RI 2 is located on the high central plateau of the island and is composed of an Early Modern shieling hut built out of, and on top of, an earlier circular mounded structure in which several radial walls are suggested, thought to be Iron Age in date. Two trenches were cut into the sides of the mound. Trench 1 on the northern edge produced a small collection of plain hand-made pottery. Dating is not immediately possible with such undiagnostic material, but the fabric, form and texture strongly suggests an Iron Age date. The excavation only removed the upper peat soil and terminated at a level of c 0.3 m depth, where stonework began to appear in a fixed attitude and a small area of baked peat soil was encountered. Trench 2 was cut up to 0.4 m into a very grassy, humped eastern side to the mound, which was found to be entirely composed of layered deposits of limpet shell and clay. A small quantity of hand-made pottery was recovered, much of which is similar to the hand-made 18th-century Craggan Ware found at the blackhouse. The midden may therefore be related to the shieling rather than the mounument below it.
Site RI 41 is located on the S coast of the island and is composed of an enclosure, massive stone platform and at least one circular stone-built hut. The construction of a modern sheep fank with associated enclosure walling appears to have severely damaged the earlier monuments. The original survey of the site encouraged a comparison with the platformed Neolitihic site at Allt Chirsal on Barra. Three trenches were cut, one across the early enclosure wall and two next to the round hut on the platform. Again, only the upper peat soil was removed down to archaeological deposits, but the excavation produced abundant pottery, which is not comparable with any found so far on the islands (excpt for a single sherd at RI 2). It is hand-made, thick, gritty and friable, fired at a low temperature and is undecorated. Trenches 1 and 2 both revealed stone faces of internal walling belonging to two further huts. Within their compass the upper surface of collapsed walling and large flat roofing lintels were revealed Trench 3, across the enclosure wall, showed it to be 2m wide with well-built external faces. The humped profile revealed in the section suggested that originally it may have atained considerable height. However, it is now thought that the platform is most likely a natural formation resulting from the collapse of the upper cliff face. The ceramics do not compare with other Neolithic pottery found in the Hebrides or with any of the material found so far on the Shiants, which reduces the possible date range of the material considerably. A Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age date is not out of the question, but the well-built rather massive enclosure wall may suggest an early medieval date and it is tempting to link the site with the 7th - 10th century AD Early Christian cross stone found in the excavations on House Island last year (DES 2000 95-6)
Foster 2001, 102

NG 4117 9829 In 2003 previously exposed deposits were removed, some samples being wet-sieved on site. Their removal revealed further earlier structural and depositional phases. Additional plain Pictish pottery of the 6th-9th century was recovered, which suggests that although more than one phase of occupation is represented, only one cultural period is present. The identification of the site as an early monastic enclave still awaits some definitive proof, although there is some circumstantial evidence, including its annat place name, for its ecclesiastical credentials.
The 2004 excavation continued with the excavation of two more occupation phases. Pottery with applied wavy line decoration recovered from both phases showed that the site had passed from the Late Iron Age to the early medieaval. Structural features included part of the Iron Age roundhouse wall upon which the early medieval roundhouse is built. The Iron Age central hearths appeared exactly under those of the medieval house, indication that both roundhouses are of a similar diameter, although the medieval house is less well designed and its wall circuit is more ovoid. Close to the Iron Age hearth was a square setting of vertically embedded stones containting a large stone slab; a worktop most likely used for food preparation. This discovery of a second Iron Age site on the islands suggests that the late prehistoric population may have been much higher than at first thought. The most notable finds are several Iron Age glass beads.
There was no further evidence to support the site's interpretation as a monastic enclave. We can now be fairly certain that the early medieval roundhouse was still standing and its stone corbelled roof was intact when it was used as a shieling hut some time in the late 17th to late 18th century. Only after this time does the mass of dumped roofing lintels and walling stone appear in the record within the house. This is most likely the point at which the nearby sheep fank and field walls were constructed, using the roundhouses as a convenient stone quarry, perhaps sometime in the 19th century.
Foster 2004, 136-7

J Macculloch, 1824, The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, Vol. 3, 327 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12936.

W J Watson, 1926, The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland: being the Rhind lectures on archaeology 1916, 233, 269 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7623.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2001, Discovery and Escavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41185.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2004, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41193.

Rachel Barrowman, 2005, Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey 2004/5 (Unpublished document). SWE41095.