<< Other Photo Pages >> Grimsay, Bagh Nam Feadhag - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in North Uist
Submitted by Andy B on Saturday, 20 March 2021 Page Views: 2470
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Grimsay, Bagh Nam FeadhagCountry: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 0.2 km away from the location you searched for.
County: North Uist Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Map Ref: NF8665257367
Latitude: 57.497743N Longitude: 7.232746W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Andy B saw from a distance
Most of the wheelhouses that have been excavated are in the open machair lands of the west coast. But there are others in less obvious locations. Roy Ashworth. a retired engineer living in Grimsay, built up a knowledge of the archaeology of the Western Isles over many years. In the early 1990s he became intrigued by the shieling mounds of the Uists. the green hillocks standing out from the surrounding landscape, with the remains of small shieling huts on lop of them. He wanted to know whether there were earlier structures concealed beneath, and formulated a somewhat impetuous plan to dig one.
In 1994 he began excavating one of a pair of mounds close to the shore on the north side of Grimsay. Ile worked single-handed on the site until 1997. Near the base of the mound he found a well-preserved wheelhouse, 8.5m in diameter, with 8 piers. It is not set into sand. but is a free-standing structure, like the wheelhouse at Clettraval. Like Clettraval too. its entrance faces west. There is a narrow aisle around the outer edge of all the piers but one. The pier north of the entrance is bonded into the outer wall; similar features arc found at Kilpheder and Udal. In the central space is a hearth, apparently reduced in size from a larger earlier version. An under floor air duct feeding the fire runs south-east from the hearth, passing under the wheelhouse wall and emerging 2.5m beyond it.
Partly underlying the wheelhouse are traces of an earlier circular building, probably an earlier wheelhouse of similar size and lying only 2.5m west of its successor. Only the western section has been exposed. No entrance can be seen in it, suggesting that the earlier building had a different orientation. Some later structures on the site have been preserved by the excavator.
These include a substantial rectangular building, and a 2m diameter shieling of recent date which sits over the wheelhouse wall. Both help to demonstrate the sequence of events on the site. The many artefacts from the wheelhouse were not systematically recorded by context, but they were carefully collected and are now held in the Archaeological Service premises in Stomoway. They include large amounts of pottery, steatite loom weights, and crucibles and a mould for metal-working. The range and quantity of finds suggests that the wheelhouse site was occupied for several centuries, perhaps into the Viking period.
The house is in good land by Uist standards - the remains of successive styles of cultivation rigs Iie all around - with easy access to building stone and to a sheltered sea inlet. It seems very possible that a second mound 80m to the north contains another wheelhouse. On two islets in nearby Loch Hornary !here are Iron Age duns.
This corner of Grimsay seems to have supported a substantial population in Iron Age times, though we can only guess al the relationships between the different settlements. At the time of writing (2000) there were plans to
consolidate the Grimsay wheelhouse. and to provide an access footpath.
If the project succeeds the site will be robust enough to withstand the impact of visitors who, we hope.
will wish to sec this best preserved of all the excavated wheelhouses in Uist.
More in The Lost Wheelhouses of Uist - a guide to some of the excavated wheelhouses of North & South Uist by Susan Hothersall and Robert Tye.
https://www.academia.edu/356702/ (free registration required)
Note: A 3D model of a late prehistoric wheelhouse, made using photogrammetry by the ACCORD project. Model, video and more details in the comments on our page.
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