Monument record 763 - BENBECULA AERODROME

NF75NE 1 7870 5661.

(Area NF 787 564) An excavation was carried out in 1956 for the Ministry of Works, at a "site, situated at Bruach Ban on the airfield at Benbecula,(which) proved to be complex, with the remains of at least four structures, of which two were aisled roundhouses, with considerable secondary occupation. The finds consisted of pottery , an upper rotary quern stone and other stone implements, as well as tools of bone and antler: food refuse, chiefly in the form of bones and sea shells, was abundant. The pottery showed that the site was of the stone roundhouse culture, and probably to be assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era " (J G Scott 1956).
The Inventory (RCAHMS 1928) records an earth-house at Bruthach a Tuath (now part of the airfield) but describes a wheelhouse, while Lethbridge (T C Lethbridge 1952 and 1928) illustrates pins of bone, iron and bronze, from the midden of a wheelhouse at the same place, which were donated to the NMAS. (PSAS 1961) He dates the bronze and iron pins to c 3rd century AD. (T C Lethbridge 1928) Other objects (bone, horn, hammer-stone,pottery) "found beside a ruined earth house," in a sand dune at Bruthach a Tuath were donated by Eric Gardner MB, FSA. (PSAS 1930) and J Graham Callander (PSAS 1916). A midden on a second mound, Bruthach Mor, is dated by a buckle to the medieval period (T C Lethbridge 1928)
J G Scott 1956; RCAHMS 1928; T C Lethbridge 1928 and 1952; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1916, 1930 and 1961.

(NF 7872 5673) Remains of a wheelhouse excavated in 1956.
Information from R Ritchie, asst. inspector, MoPBW to OS 20 April 1965.

The remains of the wheelhouse and associated structures at NF 7870 5661 are now almost completely covered by sand, making it impossible to determine their shapes or size. There are numerous middens in the area but the midden at Bruthach Mor has been completely destroyed by the construction of the runways.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 28 May 1965

PSAS, 1915-16, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 12 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9903.

T C Lethbridge, 1928, Archaeol Cambrensis, 178-9 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12993.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 104, No. 354 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

PSAS, 1929-30, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 14 (Bibliographic reference). SWE10344.

T C Lethbridge, 1952, Proc Prehist Soc, 184 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE4035.

J G Scott, 1956b, Discovery and Excavations, Scotland, 32 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13100.

PSAS, 1958-9, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 120 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5217.