Monument record 14483 - Kildonan, South Uist

85: Kildonan, South Uist, NF 7284 2857
15m diameter +, 1.5m depth of deposits, surveyed 1988, abandoned sand quarry.
Middle Iron Age and LBA/EIA pottery. For other finds see excavation reports (Zvelibil 1989; 1990; 1991). Part of this site was excavated but probably most of it remains buried under dunes.
Parker Pearson & Sharples

NF 7284 2857 In July 2004, coring was completed across this Cordoned Urn-period settlement mound (DES 2003, 133). The mound is only visible on the surface on its E side where it has been damaged by recent quarrying. Otherwise, it is buried beneath a thin layer of clean sand which previously separated it Middle Iron Age levels that were mostly excavated by Sheffield University between 1988-91.
The Early Bronze Age settlement mound contains stratified deposits, surviving to a depth of almost a metre and covering an area of 23m SE-NW by 15m. The mound's axis is on the same alignment as a Middle Bronze Age U-shaped house (c 1670-1320 BC) excavated at Cladh Hallan (DES 2002, 121-2) and is likely to contain a sequence of Cordoned Urn-period buildings (c 1800-1500 BC). More than 150m2 of stratified settlement deposits remain in situ within this mound, making it an unusually well-preserved example of a settlement from a period in which such remains are archaeologically under-represented throughout Britain and Europe. The settlement was located on a dune ridge, dropping away 0.4-0.7m on its NE and S side.
The landscape context of this Early Bronze Age settlement is particularly striking, within 50m of a prehistoric standing stone and within a few hundred metres of well-preserved Beaker and other Early Bronze Age settlements at Cill Donnain I and Sligenach (DES 1998, 104). An airborne heat-sensing survey has identified a circular anomaly beneath dunes about 500m to the W, potentially a buried stone circle.
The coring programme also revealed that the depths of Middle Iron Age deposits increase from W to E, confirmation that the small wheelhouse excavation in 1988-91 was peripheral building constructed on the western edge of a much larger Middle Iron Age mound, the full dimensions of which are hidden under a large dune. The juxtaposition of the Middle Iron Age wheelhouse directly on top of the Ealry Bronze Age mound is notable and raises the possbibilty that the relation was more than simply fortuitous.
Archive to be depostied in the NMRS.
Sponsor: University of Sheffield.
Parker Pearson and Seddon 2004, 139

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

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2004, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41193.