Monument record 12172 - dyke, Teampull Chaluim Chille, Benbecula

location approximate
MML 10.5.06

… a dyke… of gneiss boulders which were at this point thinly-spaced. These boulders were highly varied in size and shape, with some slabs set on edge, others more rounded and up to 1m across. The dyke ran for 130m on a north-east to southwest alignment, extending northeastwards of the well (Tobar Chaluim Chille) up to the southern edge of Loch na Cille at NGR NF 7824 5483, passing between Poles 22 & 23. To the southwest, it curved around the weatern edge of a low, rocky hummock on which the well was positioned, running into a confusion of glacial erratic boulders and becoming much denser and more solid in structure. It terminated in a 'tail' curving west across a watercourse at NGR NF 7815 5472 in which some of its boulders were submerged, and ending on the eastern edge of a hummock immediately to the north of Loch Rubh an Anairt. For part of its length it paralleled a drain to the west marked on the OS 1:25000 map and in the scheduling. It may itself have been a drain, but it should be noted that wide-spaced, on-edge slabs such as it incorporated for part of its course are characteristic of ancient boundary dykes…
Fyles, 2006 3-4

Chris Fyles, SUAT Ltd, 2006, Archaeological Walkover Survey, AIRD, Benbecula (Unpublished document). SWE41084.