Monument record 13577 - SMEIRCLEIT, South Uist

NF71SW 4 7448 1497

NF 7448 1497 Smeircleit. Settlement mound. Geophysical survey revealed concentrations of slag in the centre of the southern edge of the site, and several areas of high resistance in and around the centre of the mound.
Trench 1 revealed a floor with a central hearth. Immediately above this surface a whalebone plaque was located and a denuded coin - a late 17th-century 'bawbee', possibly Charles II, but more probably William and Mary. Trench 3 revealed a deep midden, probably reflecting one broad phase of use and occupation, containing limpet, bone and a number of flat-headed clinker nails. Bulk samples were taken for environmental analysis. Trench 4 topsoil contained, amongst 19th and 20th-century material, a Victorian penny.
The excavations produced a considerable depth of occupational and structural deposits. Diagnostic evidence of 17th to 19th-century settlement corresponds to the upper layers of middens, floors and buildings. The depth of some of the material suggests origins of some antiquity, possibly late prehistoric. The complexity and repetitive nature of the layers indicates fairly continuous settlement throughout. (SEARCH Site 74)
[additional contributor: A Chamberlain]
Sponsors: Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Bournemouth and Southampton, King Alfred's College.
J A Raven 2003

REPORT DATE: 21/02/2005

74: Smerclete, NF 7448 1497
c.30m diameter, 2m depth of deposits, surveyed June 1995, cultivation/pasture
No pottery. No finds. Recalled by Mrs MacAulay, retired school teacher, as an acnient midden site where she found shell and bone as a child. The sometimes cultivated field was under pasture in 1995 and there were no rabbit holes or beach exposures which produced midden material.
Parker Pearson and Sharples

Parker Pearson, M and Sharples, N, Dun Vulan Environs Survey, South Uist (Unpublished document).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