Monument record 833 - UAMH AN DUIN, EOLIGARRY, BARRA

NF60NE 5 6956 0798.

A cave (Uamh an Duin, at NF 6956 0798), halfway down the cliff between Dun Scurrival (NF60NE 3) and the western shore, shows signs of occupation (peat ash and sheel debris) (A Young 1958).
It measures 16.0m in length and is 3.0m wide and 2.7m high at the entrance tapering to 0.7m wide and 7.0 m. high at its far end. Only a few shells were visible during field investigation, interspersed with the carcasses of dead rabbits, mole and mice, brought in by the birds which now inhabit the cave.
Visited by OS (R B) 25 May 1965; OS 6"map annotated by A L F Rivet 1959; A Young 1958.

E16: The authors were shown a human skull recovered from this cave a few years before 1993. A semicircular bank runs around in front of the cave. (Grid reference NF 6959 0792 quoted, but presumably refers to this site; dimensions quoted agree with those given above.)
NMRS MS/595/10.

4. Scurrival
Site type :Cave
Narrow cave , entrance c.3m wide ,depth c.16m.We have seen a human skull said to have been recovered inside the cave some 20-30 years ago.Before the cave is a flat platform surrounded by large blocks of stone.Sampling excavation at one side of the platform in 1998 revealed a deposit with 1A pottery ,a small hearth and a saddle quern.There were a few shreds of Medieval pottery in the top soil.
Publication:Branigan and Foster p8

DES 1998: NF 696 079 To test the hypothesis that Mesolithic peoples exploiting the coastal fringe now submerged off the W coast of Barra would have made use of the small cave below Dun Scurrival, overlookig this area, a trench 5 x 1m was excavated at the side of the platform outside the cave. Below topsoil a deposit of hillwash contained a small mixed assemblage of medieval and earlier pottery, flint pebbles and quartz chunks and a saddle quern. This deposit overlay a rather sandy soil in which both hand-made pottery and flint and quartz flakes were found. Towards the top end of the trench, the corner of a low stone-built platform was found, with a small hearth area in one corner.
The pottery is provisionally identified as Middle Iron Age, although a single example of a quartzite skaill knife might hint at some earlier use of the site.
Brannigan 1998, 98-9

Also in Branigan and Foster 2000, 11

A Young, 1955-6a, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 291 (Bibliographic reference). SWE8434.

PSAS, 1977-8, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 381 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12884.

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