Monument record 1742 - ALLT CHRISAL, BARRA

NL69NW 7.06 6425 9773

For apparently-associated, and excavated, building, see also NL69NW 7.38.

T26. A blackhouse, c. 14 by 7.5m, with walls c. 1.5m thick. Traces of at least one internal partition wall and other features. There is a ditch to the rear, and a revetted platform/terrace to the front. Excavation in 1989-94 investigated details of the prehistoric platform and surviving features beneath this building by removing an area within the building down to the stone infill. The E edge of the excavation was extended through the front revetment of the platform to the S in the form of a trench taken down to bedrock where possible. Almost immediately, after the removal of the turf and topsoil that covered the site, residual prehistoric pottery and stone artefacts, mostly of flint, began to appear in what was then interpreted as the soil infill from the 18th century stone house walls. This layer, which covered much of the area inside and around the building, resulted from a combination of roof material, the peat sods of the superstructure and outcast from a mulktitude of rabbit and rat burrows that infest the structure disturbing the lower levels and wall cores. Along the rear of the N wall of the house a drainage ditch had been cut to protect the building from down slope rain wash. Sectioning and emptying this ditch revealed in situ layers and deposits along its N side (for further details, see NL69NW 7.37). It is most likely that earth removed in digging the ditch was used to infil the house wall cavity thus introducing quantities of prehistoric pottery and flintwork. At some time in the late neolithic period, the site was abandoned and apparently not used to any significant extent until the construction of the blackhouse in the late 18th century.

Four main phases of 'modern' occupation can be confidently determined: (i) The construction and domestic use of the blackhouse over a short period of time and ending around 1830;
(ii) Modification and re-use of the house, formerly a byre, sometime during the early 19th century, before the E gable wall is demolished or collapses. The house may have been vacated by this time and was possibly being used as aseasonal shelter;
(iii) Vacation and dereliction of the house;
(iv) A period when a simple shelter and related wall are built within the surviving walls of the blackhouse. This phase is undated but is stratigraphically shown to be of recent date and therefore thought to have occurred at some time during the early part of the 20th century.

Among the artefacts found were neolithic and beaker pottery, a fragment of a stone axe, and saddle and rotary querns. [For other associated features at Allt Chrisal (T25, T27-29) see NL69NW 7.37 - 7.43.]
P Foster 1989; P Foster 1992b; K Branigan 1993a; K Branigan and P Foster 1995.

The monument known as Alt Chrisal, multi-period settlement 750m ESE of Gortein, Barra, comprises the remains of a multi-period settlement site that also includes some evidence for prehistoric ritual activity. Survey & excavations between 1989 and 1994, by Sheffield University, found evidence for settlement dating from the Neolithic (about 3600 years BC) to the 18th and 19th centuries. The stone-built elements of the excavated structures are still largely visible on site today, where not destroyed by the road and sheep pen. The area to be scheduled is irregular, with maximum dimensions of 300m NNW-SSE by 270m NNE-SSW, to include the main focus of surviving above-ground structures at Alt Chrisal and an area in which evidence related to their construction and use may survive. The fenceline along the roadside and around the sheep pen (which forms the S boundary of the site) is excluded from the scheduling, to allow for maintenance.
HS scheduling document, 8.11.2005

P Foster, 1989, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 69 (Bibliographic reference). SWE10416.

P Foster, 1992b, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 88 (Bibliographic reference). SWE25421.

K Branigan, 1993a, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 109 (Bibliographic reference). SWE28575.

K. Brannigan & P. Foster, 1995, Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval from the end of the Ice Age to the Crofting Commissio, 37 49 50 51 64-72 97-8 100-15 117-19 120 124 131 135-7 141-2 144-8 figs. 4.1 4.13-4.15; plates 4.10- (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.