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<< Image Pages >> Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in South Uist

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 05 July 2020  Page Views: 1535

Multi-periodSite Name: Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 5.093 km away from the location you searched for.

County: South Uist Type: Ancient Village or Settlement

Map Ref: NF757404
Latitude: 57.338314N  Longitude: 7.392255W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag
Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag submitted by dodomad : Model showing the Drimore site under excavation in 1956 Credit: Historic Scotland (Vote or comment on this photo)
A wheelhouse excavated, and seemingly wrecked by Horace Fairhurst in 1956. Had a small secondary wheelhouse attached. See comments below for more.

Situated some 590m to the SSW of the other Drimore wheelhouse. Ref: Fairhurst Glasgow Arch. Journal 1971a:72-106
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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NF7540 : Aisled-houses ruin by Greg Morss
by Greg Morss
©2008(licence)
NF7539 : Track to the sea, Grogarry by Julian Paren
by Julian Paren
©2015(licence)
NF7639 : Rain, Grogarry by Rupert Fleetingly
by Rupert Fleetingly
©2017(licence)
NF7539 : Beach, South Uist by F Leask
by F Leask
©2007(licence)
NF7541 : Launch area building at missile range, South Uist by Greg Morss
by Greg Morss
©2007(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 888m N 355° Drimore, A' Cheardach Mhor* Ancient Village or Settlement (NF75704129)
 7.1km SSW 194° Crois Chnoca Breaca* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NF73403366)
 7.3km NE 42° Sig More* Chambered Cairn (NF8098345483)
 8.4km SSE 166° An Carra * Standing Stone (Menhir) (NF77033211)
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 11.1km N 7° Loch An Dunain (Benbecula) Stone Fort or Dun (NF77865129)
 11.1km NNE 18° Dun Mhic Uisdein Stone Fort or Dun (NF80015064)
 11.4km SSW 197° Dun Vulan Broch* Broch or Nuraghe (NF71412981)
 11.5km NNE 16° Dun Aonais Stone Fort or Dun (NF79685125)
 12.1km S 190° Ru Ardvule* Stone Row / Alignment (NF72732860)
 13.2km S 176° Bornais Ancient Village or Settlement (NF7551527184)
 13.2km S 181° Dun in Loch na Muilne* Stone Fort or Dun (NF7445327237)
 13.4km NNE 20° Stiaraval Chambered Cairn* Chambered Cairn (NF81215260)
 13.4km NNE 22° Airidh na h-aon Oidche Chambered Cairn* Chambered Cairn (NF81705247)
 13.9km NNE 20° Stiaraval* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NF8143053134)
 14.4km S 176° Barp Reineval* Chambered Cairn (NF7549425972)
 14.6km N 10° Dun Buidhe Stone Fort or Dun (NF7942354582)
 15.6km NNE 18° Olabhat Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NF8160754868)
 16.0km NNE 28° Hacklett Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NF8444453837)
 16.1km NNE 28° Benbencula, Hacklett Ancient Village or Settlement (NF8434753976)
 16.2km NNE 20° Suidhheachadh Sealg* Stone Circle (NF82495521)
 16.4km N 6° Bruach Ban Ancient Village or Settlement (NF787566)
 17.1km NNE 19° Gramisdale* Stone Circle (NF82515613)
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"Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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There are two distinctive types of wheelhouse by Andy B on Sunday, 05 July 2020
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There are two distinctive types of wheelhouse: those that are excavated into the sand, as with the cellular buildings discussed above, and those that are free-standing double-skinned buildings. Eighty-nine per cent of the examples from the Western Isles have free-standing radial piers which result in a circular passage or aisle between them and the inner wall (hence the alternative term 'aisled-roundhouse'). Many of these aisles have later been blocked and the examples in the Northern Isles tend to include piers that are bonded to the revetment wall in the primary build.

Other features include long, revetted entrances, while satellite cells, which are compared to side chapels by Crawford (2002, 121), are present at six sites in the Western Isles. Further evidence from Thomas' observations at Usinish (1868), supported by recent work at Cnip (Armit 1996, 139), suggests that the diagnostic radial piers supported corbelling over each cell, leaving only the central area to be roofed using a timber frame. Nevertheless, in a recent synthesis, the excavator of Udal proposed that the central wheelhouse area may have been unroofed in its earliest phase (Crawford 2002, 123).
More: https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue19/4/3.3.2.html

Source: Vernacular Buildings of the Outer Hebrides 300 BC–AD 1930: Temporal comparison using archaeological analysis by George Geddes
https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue19/4/toc.html
[ Reply to This ]

The excavation (and destruction) of Drimore, A' Cheardach Bheag wheelhouse by Andy B on Sunday, 05 July 2020
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Susan Hothersall and Robert Tye write: Drimore was one of five wheelhouse sites dug in a rescue project ahead of rocket range development in 1956. The excavator was Horace Fairhurst, who had earlier worked on the West Gerinish excavation. (see nearby sites list above)

All the structures at Drimore were partly below ground level, stone being used to revet the inner face of a hollow in the sand. Two wheelhouses were excavated. T11e main house had 12 bays, and was of slightly irregular shape, between 8.75 and 9.5m in diameter. ·the smaller house was only partially excavated; it was about 5.4m in diameter, and may have had as few as five bays. It appeared to be a later addition, built perhaps when the larger house was becoming overwhelmed by shifting sand. Curiously, it could only be entered by the single entrance passage through the (by then partly ruined) larger house.

A series of rebuilds eventually resulted in an entrance which resembled a tunnel extending a full nine metres to the east. On its south side was a small room, interpreted by the excavators as a guard cell, but possibly it was just a dog kennel. As elsewhere, just transporting the house stone to the Drimore site with Iron Age technology was a huge undertaking. Quite why the inhabitants went on to add this extravagant stone built entrance is utterly perplexing. Also on the east side, a unique boat shaped furnace originally stood apart outside the large wheelhouse, and was later associated with the entrance passage.

Vitrified clay found on the site had been produced at temperatures of 1200° C plus, suggesting that the furnace had probably been fired up. What it was used for remains a mystery, since neither iron working slag nor wasters from pot making were found on site. The excavators concluded that it was probably used in the manufacture of iron products: hence the name 'Little Smithy'.

The site was too waterlogged to investigate below floor level, so we do not know if there were burials of animal bones as at Sallas; but a remarkable 'kerb' was found around the hearth in the big house. It was made from up to 20 red deer jawbones, thrust teeth downwards into the floor and overlapping to form a semi-circle, perhaps originally part of a complete circuit. The bones were not scorched by fire. Fairhurst found them 'vaguely gruesome· and inferred a ritual explanation. possibly involving 'sacrifice in a fertility cult'.

Disturbance to the site by humans. rabbits and the wind combined to scramble the stratigraphy. Much of the pottery was plain or simply decorated, suggesting a late Iron Age date. There were the usual quernstones. antler tools and bone needles. An Iron Age ploughshare was a unique find, since such objects had not previously been found so far north.

Drimore wheelhouse can he a depressing site to visit today. After the 1956 excavations, the wheelhouse at Sollas was reburied. while the foundations at West Gerinish were left in some semblance of order, and protected by a fence.

Site preservation, however. did not feature prominently in Fairhurst's agenda. In the course of describing the last phase of a different Iron Age excavation, at Crosskirk broch in Caithness. he tells us 'It was a relief when the time came to make a cairn from the remnants of the broch using a mechanical earth mover·. In his account of the Drimore excavation Fairhurst reports that by 1971 blown sand had 'taken over· and that the site could 'he located only with extreme difficulty'.

What the visitor actually finds today is a great scatter of building stone, remarkable in both its quantity and disorder. We are told that metre high walls. which had survived for two millennia. were deliberately tumbled by the excavator. Fairhurst alleges that this was done ·to avoid accidents to cattle grazing on the machair'.

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.
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