Monument record 2073 - ALLT CHRISAL, BARRA

NL69NW 7.39 6425 9772

T25A: This site was revealed by road construction engineers on the last day of the (1989) archaeological excavation. Road-bed construction had reached a point immediately below the building NL69NW 7.38 when the removal of a large boulder from the face of the low sea-cliff of post-glacial colluvium revealed a pit-like feature. On cleaning a section for recording, several fragments of flint and prehistoric pottery were extracted from the layers visible in the section. After the archaeological team had heft the islands, further road work by the engineers revealed a small cavity behind and to one side of the feature.
A section cut at the cliff face in 1990 exposed a small cavity in the natural solifluction material at the base of a massive boulder.
The 'pit' excavated in 1989 appeared to be a complex succession of deposits forming part of a talus of material spilling in and out of this cavity. This talus contained fragments of worked flint and stone (including a stone axe), and a few Neolithic sherds. Lithic analysis suggests that most of the flintwork can be associated with primary knapping.
Over these deposits lay a thick layer of organic sandy silt soil of indeterminate date, which may represent a long period of accumulation od silt, soil and windblown sand on the landward side of the storm beach. This accumulation could have culminated in the late 18th to 19th century with soil being rain-washed down into the sea when the hillside was opened up to lazy-bed cultivation by the settlers who established the farmstead NL69NW 7.06.
Over, and possibly cutting into, the layer of sandy soil noted above, a gently-sloped cleft lined on both sides and at the bottom by masses of large rocks and beach cobbles forming what appears to be a combination of a naust high on the storm beach out of tidal reach and a combined slipway and shelter actually in the tidal zone for moorin a boat that is in daily use.
Sealing most of the deposits is a layer of brown sandy silt soil which is probably a deposit resulting from continued soil erosion off the hillside. Above and probably within the upper surface of this layer is a 0.12m thick deposit of ash and charcoal laden sandy soil extended in an area some 0.6m out from the section line towards the cliff edge. This may represent ash dumped onto the foreshore from the ?drying-house NL69NW 7.38.
To the immediate S of the massive boulder, within the sandy topsoil and covering turf, was a recent fire setting composed of burnt peat and charcoal with a small quantity of coke. Associated with this fire deposit were fragemnts of a white glazed stone ware jar and some disintegrating fragments of rusted iron.
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

K. Brannigan & P. Foster, 1995, Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval from the end of the Ice Age to the Crofting Commissio, 63-4, 120-1, 123, 131, 137-9 figs. 4.11 and 4.12 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.