Monument record 11890 - LEWIS, LOCH MOR A CHOCAIR

NB33SW 35 centred 3476 3411

An archaeological assessment was undertaken in advance of a potential windfarm development at Beinn Mholach and Arnish Moor. A total of 29 areas (over 100 individual sites) of archaeological remains were identified, most of which relate to post-medieval shieling practice, lazy bed cultivation, peat cutting, and to the 19th and 20th-century use of these upland areas. The proposed windfarm development involves two areas of peat moorland in the centre of Lewis. (GUARD 891).
NB 3476 3411
Loch Mor a' Chocair
Shieling group.
NB 347 341
Loch Mor a' Chocair
Quarry pits.
Full report lodged with the NMRS.
Sponsor: Dulas Ltd
J Hooper 2001
REPORT DATE: 18/06/2002

B004-007 centred NB 3476 3411
Loch Mor a'Chocair, a group of four shieling huts, surviving as low stone footings, lying just to the south of the Pentland Road.
There is no cartographic evidence fo this group of shieling huts clustered around a knoll into which two later quarry pits have been dug. However, they appear on the vertical aerial photographs from 1946. One definite shieling hut lies to the south of the quarry pits, iwht another square structure to the north of the more easterly pit. A further two, more amorphous, mounds also lie to the south of the pits… What seems to be a drier knoll to the south-west might have have a structure on it.
B004 NB 34744 34126
B005 NB 34767 34114
B006 NB 34795 34157
A group of three shieling huts, located around the south and west sides of the knoll. All are of drystone and turf construction, surviving a slow stone footings, measuring c. 4-5m long by 2m broad. B005 and B 006 are aligned N-S, while B004 is oriented more NNE-SSW. Each hasa an entrance in the south-western corner.
B007 NB 34775 34117
Associated with the group of shieling huts described above, is a more isolated structure slightly further to the north. It is located on a spit of land between the two quarry pits B0008, and appears to have been damaged during the excavation of the latter. It has an E-W alignment and measures c. 3m long by 2m broad. A single entrance is present towards the east end of the north wall
B008 centred BN347 341
Two large, shallow quarry pits with a short track leading to them, are set into the south and east sides of the knoll on which B004-7 are situated. A single quarry pit is shown on the OS 2nd ed map 1895, but is not present on the OS 1st ed map (1849-52), suggesting that it must be associated with the construction of the Pentland Road in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The second one may then be associated with the later upgrading of the road in the twentieth century.
Hooper 2000, 26

Also listed in J Hooper 2001, 104

Janet Hooper, 2000, Lewis: Project 891 (Bibliographic reference). SWE41076.

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