Monument record 13567 - BAGHASDAL, South Uist

NF71NW 24 c.736 174

NF 736 174 Baghasdal. Settlement mound. The site of a planned settlement on the 1805 estate map, possibly constructed on top of an earlier settlement. Geophysics results suggested concentrations of stone, possibly of denuded structures, but were too disturbed to read clearly. (SEARCH Sites 67 and 68)
Sponsors: Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Bournemouth and Southampton, King Alfred's College.
J A Raven 2003

REPORT DATE: 21/02/2005

67: Boisdale, NF 7353 1752
c.8m, unknown depth of deposits, surveyed June 1995, cultivation.
No pottery. Shell and bone. A small scatter with no appreciable mound.
Parker Pearson and Sharples

68: Boisdale, NF 7362 1746
c.20m diameter, unknown depth of deposits, surveyed June 1995, cultivation.
Sparse Post-Medieval pottery (one glazed sherd, one coarse by hard-fired). Shell and bone. No appreciable nound. This may be the machair settlement (or part of it) which was abandoned as late as the late 18th/early 19th century according to James MacDonald (whose great, great grandfather lived here). It was supposedly abandoned because of disease. If so, it would appear to be the only late (ie post-Norse) machair settlement abandonment in the survey area.
Parker Pearson and Sharples

Parker Pearson, M and Sharples, N, Dun Vulan Environs Survey, South Uist (Unpublished document). SWE41170.