Monument record 13406 - LEWIS, SHADER, BALLANTRUSHAL

NB35SE 58 3769 5366

NB 3769 5366 The stone circle is located on grazing moorland from which all the peat was cut in the early 20th century. The centre of the circle is about 180m SE of the Trushal Stone (see entry below).
There are two erect stone stumps, 0.85 x 0.18 x 0.33m high, and 1.05 x 0.35 x 0.95m high, some pieces broken off; and three stone slabs, one set on edge, 1.70 x 0.98 x 0.30m thick, and two lying over voids, 2.70 x 1.30 x 0.23m thick, and 1.05 x 0.75 x 0.25m thick. The stones are located on the arc of the circle with a diameter of c 42m, and are spread along an arc of about 45% of the circle.
There are more stones which may be packing stones representing the remains of socket holes. About 20 sharp-edged broken stones in a stone shelter 15m away may be from one or more standing stones.
On the NW side of the putative stone circle, close to a peat track, there is a stone setting by the larger stone stump with stone slabs set on edge in an area of 3.5 x 3.0m. The largest slabs are 1.70, 0.95, 0.75 and 0.60m long by 0.98, 0.60, 0.45 and 0.43m wide, the largest of which is included in the stones of the circle above. It is unclear whether this setting is the remains of one or more broken megaliths, a burial chamber or possibly a geological formation. There are similar stone slabs, one 0.70 x 0.36 x 0.30m with a void underneath, displaced at each side of the peat track near this setting.
Seen from this circle, the top of the Trushal Stone grazes the sea horizon and may have been an astronomical foresight for Beltane and Lammas sunsets (May and August) as at other stone circles in the Western Isles.
M Boreham, J Ewing, M R Curtis and G R Curtis 2002
REPORT DATE: 28/05/2003

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2002, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41091.