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<< Text Pages >> Port nan Long - Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House) in Scotland in North Uist

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 08 September 2006  Page Views: 11979

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Port nan Long
Country: Scotland County: North Uist Type: Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House)
 Nearest Village: Newtonferry
Map Ref: NF892784
Latitude: 57.687643N  Longitude: 7.217354W
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
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data 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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Souterrain in North Uist. An underground chamber undisturbed since the Iron Age was revealed on North Uist when a 10ft hole opened beneath the wheel of a tractor. Archaeologists assessed the find at Port nan Long at the north of the island, which has been sealed off from the public.

Archaeologists assessed the find at Port nan Long at the north of the island, which has been sealed off from the public. Dr Mary MacLeod, Western Isles Council's archaeologist, was delighted to declare the hole an Iron Age souterrain, or underground chamber.

She said: "It is particularly exciting because it is so well preserved. "It has lain undisturbed for 2000 years. I think there has been a very large pre-historic settlement on this site, possibly over thousands of years."

The souterrain is an oval structure over three metres in diameter, the top of it lying just under a metre below the surface. The passage leading off it is less than a metre high. Dr Chris Barrowman, Historic Scotland's monument warden, said the configuration was typical of Iron Age souterrains. The archaeologists agreed that the passage was likely to lead to a house, possibly a wheelhouse – a circular drystone building with a single entrance divided by a number of stone piers arranged like the spokes of a wheel leading to a central room.

Kate MacDonald, a Sheffield University archaeologist based at South Uist, climbed inside the souterrain and entered the passage leading off it. She carried out a visual assessment of the site and took photographs, measurements and GPS readings.

She found cattle bones showing butcher marks, some inserted into cavities in the wall. An intact lamb's skull was discovered at the back of the chamber. "Bones held a lot of significance for Iron Age people, but it's impossible to guess at this stage why the bones were placed like that. The souterrain itself is still a mystery. If it was a food store, why the tiny passage leading to it? Did some kind of ritual go on here?"

Souterrains are normally found along the Atlantic seaboard of Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, and Ireland. Most of the 57 known in the Western Isles were uncovered in the 19th century. The most recent was found in the 1970s during road-building near Gress in Lewis.

More: The Herald


Note: Iron Age chamber found under tractor
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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NF8978 : Wet sheep by Leo
by Leo
©2013(licence)
NF8978 : Port nan Long dwellings by Mat Tuck
by Mat Tuck
©2013(licence)
NF8978 : Old steadings at Port nan Long by Bob Jones
by Bob Jones
©2006(licence)
NF8978 : Port nan Long (Newton Ferry) by Anne Burgess
by Anne Burgess
©2006(licence)
NF8978 : Port nan Long, North Uist by Richard Park
by Richard Park
©2021(licence)

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"Port nan Long" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Re: Port nan Long by Andy B on Friday, 08 September 2006
(User Info | Send a Message)
More on this at Stornoway Today, with a photo. Thanks to Krista for the link
http://www.stornowaytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2629&ArticleID=1750713

UNDERGROUND SECRETS OF UIST
FURTHER secrets of pre-historic Uist could soon be unearthed, with archaeologists believing last week's discovery of an underground chamber could lead them to an ancient wheelhouse.

But with the site at Port nan Long currently unsafe for exploration, a hatch has been installed to close off the area while funding for further investigation is pursued.
Revealed by a local crofter during seasonal silage-making last Friday, the souterrain is believed to date back to the Iron Age and has remained hidden beneath the landscape for several thousand years.

Having been inspected by local archaeologists Dr Mary Macleod and Kate Macdonald, it is thought the area could in fact hold clues to several thousand years of island history and could have been a long term settlement throughout pre-historic times.
And so hoping to begin investigations as soon as possible, Chair of the local Access Archaeology Group, George Macdonald explained that for safety reasons the area had to be closed over, but that action was being taken towards acquiring funding.

George adds that it is currently uncertain whether the site will ever be open to the public.
He said: "It would be counter productive to let anyone into the site at the moment, Kate is the only one who has been down into it but the chamber is not currently very safe. Ultimately if we find that it is a safe structure then fine, but these are certainly not the easiest structures to access and not everyone will be able to."
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SAIR 3::Bronze Age farms and Iron Age farm mounds of the Outer Hebrides by Andy B on Friday, 08 September 2006
(User Info | Send a Message)
More on this sort of subject, a 350 page PDF report to download:

http://www.sair.org.uk/sair3/

SAIR 3::Bronze Age farms and Iron Age farm mounds of the Outer Hebrides

by John Barber

with contributions by Geoff Collins, Lisbeth Crone, Alan Duffy, Andrew Dugmore, Nyree Finlay, Will Forbes, Ann-Marie Gibson, Paul Halstead, Ken Hirons, Heather F James, Andrew Jones, Glynis Jones, Frances Lee, Darag Lehane, Ann MacSween, Antoinette Mannion, Ian D Mate, Rod McCullagh, Simon Moseley, Andrew Newton, Chris Pain, Alix Powers, Jim Rideout, William Ritchie, Marian Scott, Dale Serjeantson, Andrea Smith & Nigel Thew

ISBN 0-903903-72-5

Published in March 2003 by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in association with The Council for British Archaeology and Historic Scotland, in Adobe Acrobat format. Available free of charge (see Terms & Conditions of Use)
Report Summary

Hebridean sites of the coastal sand cliffs and associated machair, or sandy plain have been known for many years. Artefacts and ecofacts of various types have long been collected from archaeological sites in the eroding sand-cliffs of the machairs of the Outer Hebrides. Early in 1983, personnel of the then Central Excavation Unit of Historic Scotland's predecessor revisited very nearly all of the coastal archaeological sites then known in the Long Isle, with the specific task of identifying those at immediate threat from coastal erosion and of assessing the feasibility of their excavation or preservation. Some 32 sites were seen to be undergoing active erosion; at nine of them preservation was not being pursued and excavation was feasible.
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