Monument record 9622 - BY66, Berneray, Barra

BY66: Complex of roundhouse, blackhouses, barn and enclosure. Lower slope to coastal bench. BY66 is of indubitable antiquity since it is overlain by a later building, but the actual date of its construction is as usual not determinable. Unfortunately circumstances did not allow sufficient time for a creditable survey. The structure is a substantial circular wall of earth and stones approximately 5m diam,. and 1m thick with just one side of an east-facing entrance visible. The other side of the entrance is obscured by the later square-shaped early modern buildings. This whole group of buildings is set within an enclosure that itself may be of some early date. The later retangular buildings appear to be the outbuildings of the early modern homestead BY67. The complex deserves a detailed measured survey and some selective excavations to elucidate the phasing sequence, to date that sequence and to determine the posssible functional purposes of the various elements.
BY66a: Roundhouse. Not clearly seen, but possibly a 5m diam. round house mounded and with a wide mound slope radiating from the core area.
BY66b: Blackhouse. Possible blackhouse or earlier subrectangular house, 8 x 5m, mostlikely single cell with 0.8m thick walls of earth and stone with an entrance to the east.
BY66c: Enclosure. Irregular curvilinear enclosure, 24m across at its widest, or earth and stone walls.
BY66d: Barn. A square, 4 x 4.5m, single cell with earth and stone walls siting (sic) squarely over part of house (b) using the same entrance out on to the enclosure.
BY66e: Blackhouse or earlier. Subrectangular, almost oval, 8 x 5m, building of earth and stone walls, a single cell without any entrance apparent. This building overlies the possible mounded roundhouse, but appears to predate all the other structures.
BY66f: Barn. An L-shaped wall built off the north wall of building (b) may be a single-cell barn of approximatly 5 x 4m square. The wide open side faces west, away from the enclosure. A slight suggestion of a wall at the opposide end of building (b) could be a further barn.
Branigan & Foster 2000, 139

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.