Monument record 1636 - SHEADER, SANDRAY

NL69SW 7 6312 9200

SY 14: At this site a tell-like mound, severely eroding, yielded evidence of nine stratified phases of occupation. The earliest is a large shell-midden with no visible artefact material, overlain by a stone-founded building. One or both phases may be associated with Neolithic pottery from the site. Sterile sand separates these levels from an Iron Age occupation, in turn overlain by two phases of medieval stone buildings. Further sand deposits are overlain by four phases of post-Medieval buildings, the last of which is thought to be associated with the short-lived re-occupation of Sandray by some of the Vatersay raiders of 1908. (See also NL69SW 16.)
P Foster 1991; NMRS MS/595/6

(previously recorded as NL69SW 16)
Sheader: Name applies to "a piece of ground formerly cultivated".
Name Book 1878
SY13: (NL6312 9200) Group of five stone-built houses, and earlier foundations, on an artificial hillock, at Sheader. (see also NL69SW 7.)
NMRS MS/595/6, 9

Two unroofed buildings and an enclosure, all of which are attached to the wall of a field, are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Hebrides, Barra etc. 1880, sheet lxvi). Two unroofed buildings, one of which has three compartments, are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1971).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 17 June 1997

SY13 (NL63129200) Settlement complex (Sheader).
Location: On grassed-over shell sand dunes immediately above storm beach.
Description: Nucleated settlement of improved blackhouses of more than one phase, with associated barns and field enclosures. The 1908 settlement of the Vatersay Raiders at Sheader is composed of five improved blackhouses built in a row, but the fifth is stepped forward out of line to the north. Each has a fireplace and chimney built into the west wall and an entrance in the north wall. Several outbuildings and enclosures complete the settlement, however, there is more than a single phase of occupation and use represented here. Blackhouse (a) appears to overstep (c) and the possible outhouse or barn foundation wall (f) most likely belongs to an earlier 19th-century phase. An earlier set of blackhouses exist below the 1908 settlement that were built prior to abandonment in the clearance of 1835 and are depicted on the 1st edition OS map of 1880. An excavation of the floor area of house No. 4 (SY13A) of the 1908 settlement revealed a floor, fire place and an earlier internal room division that indicate that at least some of the Raiders' houses may have been modifications of the earlier blackhouses. There is also a distinct possibility that some of the abandoned buildings were used and possibly modified by the shepherds in the post-clearance period.
Note: Stone-by-stone survey of the settlement to be published in SEARCH volume 6.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 67

SY13a (NL63129200) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Subrectangular, single room dry-stone structure, 9 x 5 m, rounded external corners, entrance to the north and fireplace/chimney in west wall.
Note: Excavation revealed earlier house with open floor fireplace below present standing building (see excavation report in SEARCH volume 6).
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 67

SY13b (NL63129200) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Subrectangular, 4.3 x 4 m, rounded external corners, entrance to the north and fireplace/chimney in west wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13c (NL63129200) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Subrectangular, 6 x 4 m, rounded external corners, entrance to north and fireplace/chimney in west wall.
Note: This building appears to have been partly demolished for the constuction of 13A.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13d (NL63129200) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Subrectangular, 9.8 x 5 m, entrance to the north and fireplace/chimney in west wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13e (NL63129200) Blackhouse.
Location: As above.
Description: Subrectangular, 7.2 x 4.4 m, entrance to north and fireplace/chimney in west wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13f (NL63129200) Barn.
Location: As above.
Description: Rectangular, 6 x 4 m, wall foundation only with no visible entrance.
Note: Could have several other functions, such as haystack stand etc.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13g (NL63129200) Enclosure.
Location: To the west of the settlement blackhouses except for SY13e that opens on to it.
Description: Subrectangular, 17 x 14 m, low drystone wall with entrance to east into settlement enclosure SY13h.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY13h (NL63129200) Enclosure.
Location: To north of the main blackhouse group.
Description: Rectangular drystone walled enclosure, c. 29 x 14 m, with entrance to west into enclosure SY13g. Blackhouses a to d appear to open onto it, but all of its eastern and half of its northern extent is not visible.
Note: Part of its northern line was revealed in the excavations (see above) as a revetted terrace wall.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

SY14 (NL63129200) Settlement (Bronze Age to Iron Age, Sheader).
Location: Stratigraphically below modern settlement SY13 on the Sheader shellsand dunes.
Description: Multiphase occupation deposits with several walls or partitions of single stone settings and post holes of more than one phase. Only the northern exposed edge of the mound was subjected to a limited tapestry excavation, and it is most likely that the structures become more substantial and more chronologically complex deeper inside the mound. This assertion is reinforced by a C14 date taken from a limpet shell sample from a midden at the base of the site that gave a late Bronze Age date (see excavation report, Chapter 7).
Note: Excavation report includes Iron Age pottery and faunal remains. Both SY13 and 14 are subect to severe storm erosion and large quantities of material is being washed out from the east side of the site mound. Structural damage is affecting buildings of all periods.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 68

P Foster, 1991, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 75 (Bibliographic reference). SWE18553.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.