Monument record 351 - BROAD BAY, BRAIGHE, LEWIS

NB43SE 9 4801 3220.

In the course of road widening skeletons were discovered at the base of dunes near Aiginish cemetery. Excavation revealed two trenches, aligned N-S, dug into shell sand prior to the formation of the overlying dune. The skeletons consisted of one adolescent, nine adult males (aged from 17-30 years) and one female (aged 40-50 years). One of the males displayed severe osteomyelitis of the left thigh, and other pathological anomolies were also noted on the skeleton. Four of the bodies are clearly part of the same genetic group, and two others, including the female, also share genetic similarities.
There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that these people are not local. One explanation for such a mass burial might be that they were drowned, and that such circumstances may have demanded exclusion from the cemetery. Perhaps the advanced state of decomposition of the corpses inhibited their stripping corpses thus ensuring the presence of coins with one of the bodies.
Coins from one of the skeletons indicate a date of burial soon after 1688. Other artefacts recovered include a knife, two lead objects and some cloth.
R McCullagh 1989.

For analagous burials at Carnish, Lewis, see NB03SW 18.

For additional information relating to this site see MWWE149812.
KM (Arch Service CnES) 25/11/2022

R McCullagh, 1989c, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 71 (Bibliographic reference). SWE10425.

Roderick McCullagh & Finbar McCormick, 1990b, 'The investigation of a post-medieval mass grave at Braighe, Lewis', 26-8 (Unpublished document). SWE9056.

Roderick McCullagh & Finbar McCormick, 1991, 'The excavation of post-mediaeval burials from Braigh, Aignish, Lewis, 1989' (Article in serial). SWE41010.