Monument record 2113 - ALLT CHRISAL, BARRA

NL69NW 88 642 979

T214: This paved cairn sat on a small shelf at 150m OD, and some 135m above the Neolithic/EBA platform NL69NW 7.37. As revealed in survey, it appeared to be an oval outline of stone blocks, about 7 x 6m, with a secondary structure (about 2.5m square) built over the SE quadrant. It was provisionally interpreted as a house site with a shepherd's shelter superimposed.
Excavation (in appalling weather) confirmed the two-phase hypothesis but revealed an enigmatic lower structure. This proved to be a roughly circular monument (7 x 7.5m) defined by a crude kerb which mostly comprised large boulders or blocks, but incorporated small lumps of rock. Only at a few points did the kerb stand more than one course high; its effectiveness was the result of the height of its constituent stones compared to those within it. Although the kerb had been robbed and badly disturbed (partly to build the overlying structure) the raised kerb could be distinguished almost anywhere around its circuit, its width (which varied between 0.75 and 0.9m) was not preserved everywhere.
On the SE, the kerb was made of smaller blocks than elsewhere, and seemed to turn inwards to form a passage only 0.5m wide. A triangular monolith (1m long) lay immediately in front of this 'passage', where it may have stood upright, possibly as a blocking slab. Beyond the slab there was an arc of large stones (some still set upright) enclosing an area about 4 x 1.5m. These stones formed part of the (secondary) overlying structure, but they may may represent a 'forecourt' in front of the 'passage'.
Within the kerb, slabs and blocks of stone covered almost the entire surface, being rarely more than one stone deep and in many places with slab-like stones clearly laid to form rough paving. Where best preserved (on the W), the kerbstood 25-30cm above the level of this pavement. In the SW area, behind the large upright block, there was a damaged cist, measuring 1.5 x 0.6m and formed of slabs and blocks set on edge. The bottom was neatly paved with stone slabs; nothing was found in it. Two slabs (0.7 and 1m long respectively) lay 2m to the NW and may have been the covering slabs of the cist.
A small (undated) flint lump formed the only cultural material recovered in excavation. The monument had been gradually covered by a thin buildup of peaty soil, but there was no deposit suitable for a radiocarbon determination.
The structure may be interpreted as a house, perhaps with a turf wall on a raised stone foundation, the cist being used for storage. The kerb is, however, too narrow to carry a substantial superstructure and the diameter makes a timber roof or corbelled turf dome unlikely. Equally, the lack of cultural material does not equate easily to domestic use. The form of the monument is suggestive of a Bronze Age ring-cairn, and the cist would suit such an occupation, while skeletal remiains would not be expected to survive in the local soil conditions. The location also favours a non-domestic use, being perched on an exposed shelf, away from the settlement in the valley. An interpretation as a burial monument of (probably) the mid-2nd millennium BC is, accordingly, favoured.
The overlying structure was a U-shaped arrangement of large blocks of stone, all probably robbed from the earlier monument, but some possibly utilised in situ. Other stones were placed high in the deposits and were probably placed in position relatively recently. The structure measured about 4m across both axes, and had a gap or entrance on the NE. There was neither floor nor occupation deposit, and it seems likely that the structure is a temporary shepherd's shelter or small pen.
K Branigan and P Foster 1995; NMRS, MS/595/9.

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, 46, 49, 51, 184-6, 201 fig. 5.16, pl. 5.5 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.