Monument record 2062 - ALLT CHRISAL, BARRA

NL69NW 7.16 6417 9785

T19: A circular hut, c4m in diameter with a 0.85m wall. There were traces of a possible outer wall around the N side.
T19 is a substantial roundhouse (A) built high on the W side of the Allt Chrisal stream at a point where the defile is becoming increasingly narrow and steep sided. The site is located on a natural prominence, possibly of colluvial material, that accumulated at this point close to the stream. The prominence created a relatively level area which has been further modified and extended by dumping large rocks and soil (31) on the E side adding to the natural platform. A further neatly laid stone revetment was built along the S edge.
The initial survey of this site in 1988 recorded the clearly defined S-facing entrance to the roundhouse and the annexe structures (B, C and D) to the outer W and E sides of the main roundhouse. (Figs.4.5-7 and Pl.4.4).
The excavation of this site was carried out by a small supervised team when they could be spared from the main excavations. The aim of the limited excavation was to expose and investigate the structural elements and their stratigraphical sequence and to obtain sufficient material with which to date the various components of the site.

The excavation 1992-1993
Initially the site was divided and excavated in quadrants, but once the bulk of the overburden was removed it was found that the dividing bulks hindered the correlation of features within the house and they were removed. Section recording was maintained thereafter by levelling. Investigation of the lower levels was continued in a limited manner by sondages running E from the centre of the house through the main wall and platform, and W from the centre of the house through the front door opening.
The collapse of the main wall (32) of the house on the inner, E side due to rabbit burrowing enabled the investigation of the inner core and foundations to proceed without causing further damage. The collapsed walling was rebuilt at the end of the excavation.
Investigation of the construction of the platform in the E end of the sondage was limited to recording and photographing the configuration of the rocks and boulders without disturbing them.

The results of the excavation can be summarised as folows; the limited nature of the excavation inevitably produced limited information. However, the basic question was whether the roundhouse was divorced from the cist (E) and the heavy metalling (27) by time and function.
Analysis of the ceramic assemblage shows that, as with site at T26/26A, the same chronological range of Neolithic pottery types is present in deposits relating to the roundhouse T19. On this evidence the two sites appear to have co-existed over a period that potentially spans a millennium, however at T19 insufficient material was found from which radiocarbon dates could be obtained to prove this.
Apart from the finds of Beaker pottery, which help fix a terminus post quem for the site to the end of the Late Neolithic period, the rest of the ceramic repertoire, on the evidence from T26/26A, could be allocated to a wide date range within the early to the late Neolithic.
K Branigan and P Foster 1995; NMRS MS/595/3, 7, 9

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

K. Brannigan & P. Foster, 1995, Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval from the end of the Ice Age to the Crofting Commissio, 35, 49, 51,57-60, 64, 81, 91, 97-8 Plans, fig.4.1; Figs. 4.6, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.