Monument record 8023 - Bagh Mor

SU 101:
This large house is situated on a bedrock ridge running from east to west. The main structure measures 17.2 x 7 metres and has walls of stone with an earthen core, of up to 1 metre in thickness. It has two opposing entrances 6 metres from its east end in its north and south walls. Attached to its eastern end is a small apsoidal building on the same centre line as the main structure and measuring 7.3 x 5.5 metres. This smaller structure has a single entrance at the western end of its southern wall and a small internal platform, located within its apsoidal east end. It is unclear due to the presence of heavy rubble whether there is any opening/ entrance from the main building though its east wall directly into this subsidiary structure. Immediately to the north of these two buildings is the fragmentary remains of additional structures. These are located on either side of the northern entrance way to the main building which is approached from the north-west by a revetted path. To the east of the entrance way is the footings of a structure measuring 9.6 x 6.6 metres that can clearly be seen at its eastern end to join/abut the apsoidal ancillary structure. To the west of the entrance is the footings of a structure measuring 7.5 x 2.4 metres that shows signs of originally being formed of two cells or internal rooms. The relationship between this latter structure and the main house is unclear.
Interpretation: This building is clearly unusual, representing either a high status residence, possibly for the local "Tacs" collector, or land owner. The second possibility is that these remains represent the site of an early/ pre-reformation church. The fact that this structure is orientated from west to east and has an ancillary building constructed on its east end, an unusual arrangement for a blackhouse, also suggests a religious building. The fragmentary structures on the north side of the main building may represent lean to structures against the north wall of the main house, or alternatively could mark the remains of an earlier structure that had been dismantled to provide building materials for another structure on the site.
Impact Detail: See SU 97.
(Babtie Group, 1999)

Babtie Group, 2000, Eriskay Causeway Archaeological Sruvey Draft Report (Unpublished document). SWE41018.