Monument record 299 - ARNOL, LEWIS

NB34NW 2.01 3030 4830

Formerly NB34NW 2

The original site (of Arnol) was much nearer the sea, in the area above the rocky beach called Mol a' Chladaich, immediately to the north of Arnol Loch. Here the ruins of small, oval-ended stone houses are still visible. No doubt they date from and beyond the eighteen century. They lie on an accumulation of layers of sand, varying in depth, in which successive occuption layers are marked by pottery going back at least to the 1st century A.D. In the hollow behind the little settlement lay the community's fields, still outlined by stone or built up on their lower edges to make level beds or platforms.
A Fenton 1978

(NB 302 493) Erosion of stone buildings (site of old Arnol Village) and midden material by man and the sea. Finds include numerous pottery sherds, plain and decorated, and some Iron Age; two quartz and two other rubbed stones; metal slag; a sherd of reduced grey late Medieval pottery with green glaze; a bronze Highland ring brooch.
M MacRae and M Ponting 1983.

Further erosion has uncovered more Iron Age Pottery, a comb made from antler, and a stone pot lid.
M Ponting, M MacRae and G R Curtis 1984.

A township, comprising nine unroofed buildings and fifteen enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Island of Lewis Ross-shire 1853, sheet 8). One unroofed building and two enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1974).
Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 18 February 1997.

PSAS, 1972-4, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 325 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9231.

A Fenton, 1978b, The Island Blackhouse: and a guide to 'The Blackhouse', no. 42. Arnol, 39 (Bibliographic reference). SWE32630.

M and M Ponting and MacRae, 1983b, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 39 (Bibliographic reference). SWE14563.

M, M and G R MacRae, Ponting a, 1984e, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 44 (Bibliographic reference). SWE14564.