Monument record 2074 - ALLT CHRISAL, BARRA

NL69NW 7.40 6427 9773

T27: Rectangular building, c. 7 x 5m, crudely-built with large boulders. Excavation in 1989 showed this to have been a byre, although a (probably secondary) hearth was noted and 19 flints (including a worn awl and a broken end scraper) were recovered.
P Foster 1989; K Branigan and P Foster 1995; NMRS, MS/595/3.

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

P Foster, 1989, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 69 (Bibliographic reference). SWE10416.

K. Brannigan & P. Foster, 1995, Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval from the end of the Ice Age to the Crofting Commissio, 49, 51, 117-18, 126, 131, 135 figs. 4.1, 4.24-4.26 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.