Monument record 6371 - Dalbeg

Surrounding Land Status code - A Recommended Action - Monitor
Burgess & Church 1997

The top of the island is dominated by a large pile of gneiss blocks, of the same colour and grain size as the stack. It was entirely naturla in origin. However, a small hammer stone of red coloured metamorphic rock unlike the gneiss was discovered amongst this material.
On the lnadward side of the summit plateau, a stone faced bank arcs for approx. a thirs of a circle, the remainder having been lost off the edge in a collapse. The bank is regular in cross section along its length, regular in arc and maintains a height of 0.5m. The matrix is organic silty clay, not present elsewhere on the island. The stones of the bank included many undressed beach cobbles of c. 300mm, also not present elsewhere on the island. This seems unusual given that the plateau is covered in large, naturally rectangular blocks. One of these large blocks is used as one o ftwo courses in what seems to be a termination or one half of an entrance, at the end of the arc, on the edge of the landward cliff. Inside the bank, deposits are eroding quickly and no cultural remains or floor remain.
McHardy 2006, 12

Burgess, Christopher & Church, Michael, 1997, Coastal Erosion Assessment, Lewis. A Report for Historic Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41000.

Ian McHardy, 2006, The STAC project, 2005: Data structure report (Unpublished document). SWE41145.