Monument record 1664 - KILDONAN

NF72NW 26 728 285

(NF 725 280) Excavation of the circular house and midden, begun in 1989, was completed in 1991. Four main phases of occupation were identified. The earliest occupation deposits were associated with a large circular pit, and produced pottery, bone and a flint core and two scrapers. The pottery is tentatively identified as middle or late Bronze Age. An almost sterile 50cm layer of sand separated this stratum from the main occupation phase represented by the remains of a circular house, 6.5m internal diameter, with remains of six radiating internal piers, and a 1.5m by 0.5m slab-lined hearth. Pottery from the occupation deposit suggests a later Iron Age date.
A smaller, 2.6m internal diameter, stone-based hut was subsequently built within the ruins of the aisled house.
Finally this was overlain by an extensive midden associated with cultivation of the machair. A plate-headed knee brooch and penannular brooch suggest a terminus ante-quem for the abandonment of the underlying structures, around AD 250-400.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland.
M Zvelebil 1991

Information from Historic Scotland places this site at c.NF 728 285 not at NF 725 280 as quoted in Discovery and Excavation 1991.
Information from Dr S Foster, Historic Scotland, June 1996.

M Zvelebil, 1991, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 75 (Bibliographic reference). SWE18554.