Monument record 2000 - THE AIRD, BERNERAY

NL58SE 42.01 5687 8027

BY53. Three-roomed L-shaped house with small sheep dip at one end, and enclosed yard/garden in the angle of the L; 19th century with 20th century alterations.
P Foster 1992; NMRS, MS/595/7.

BY53: Complex of houses and platform. Bottom coastal plain. Two rectangular improved blackhouses built at right angles to each other forming an L shape that retains a raised and revetted platform. Modified after abandonment to provide a modern set of stock pens with concrete sheep dip.
BY53a: Blackhouse. Rectangular single cell with 12.5m thick drystone walls, a curved back fireplace in the south end wall and a blocked entrance to the west. Assuming that the doorway is approximately in the middle of the wall then the length of the building is around 10 m and its internal width is 3.1m. A gated doorway has been cut through the east wall giving access to the enclosure (d). A further door has been cut through the wall in the position where the north end fireplace would have been giving access into the pen (c).
BY53b: Blackhouse. The largest of the two houses, a rectangular, 14.4 x 7.2m single cell with 1.5m thick drystone walls, a square-backed fireplace in the east end wall and an entrance to the north. Assuming that the end west wall is oroginal, then an entrance has been cut through it , where the fireplace could have been, to give access to the pen (c). A further opening has been cut to the north of the east fireplace and a sheep dip chute inserted that gives passage to a dip tank just inside the house. There is no direct access to the platform enclosure to the south between the houses.
BY53c: Pen. Rectangular single cell of drystone, 1.5m thick walls, with internal dimensions of 5.3 x 3.8m built in the angle of the two glackhouses using the west wall of house (b) , but possibly reconstructing the north end of house (a) to allow for more internal space. A gated doorway to the north and one to the west give access to the open field system. Doorway to the south into house (a) and east into house (b) complete the sheep control system. The animals can be dirven through the dip in house (b) and on into the pen and so on to house (b) with an exit to the raised platform enclosure or they can be cut out into the temporary fenced paens at the north doorway of house (b) and the north or west exits from the pen.
BY53d: Platform. Rectangular, 15.5 x 6.5m, raised platform built inside the angle of the two blackhouses providing an enclosure with access from house (a) only. the leading edges are revetted with piled stone to the south and set upright stones to the east. Presumably the enclosure was completed with temporary wire fencing.
Branigan & Foster 2000, 137

P Foster, 1992a, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 88 (Bibliographic reference). SWE25420.

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