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Watching brief: Cornaigbeg
10 Cornaigbeg, Tiree
Watching brief
David Sneddon – Clyde Archaeology
NL 9920 4547 A watching brief was undertaken between 30 July
and 1 August 2020 during excavation related to the construction
of a house on land S of 10 Cornaigbeg, Kenovay, Isle of Tiree.
The location of the new house lay approximately 50m to the N
of Dun Ceann a’ Bhaigh (Canmore ID: 21421, WoSAS Pin: 15).
Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (2020), p. 31)
A substantial deposit of windblown sand was uncovered beneath
the topsoil which appeared to have been deposited during at
least two significant storms. A series of cultivation remains were
present on top of the windblown sand. Beneath the windblown
sand lay an old ground surface which sealed three pits that were
partially revealed within one small area of the trench. Although
only partially excavated the fills of these pits, and a fourth pit
which cut through the old ground surface, were extremely sterile.
Although of some antiquity, the absence of any additional remains
means the date and purpose of these features remains unclear.
Two unstratified small body sherds of possible prehistoric pottery
were also recovered.
Archive and Report: NRHE
Funder: Private individual10 Cornaigbeg, Tiree
Watching brief
David Sneddon – Clyde Archaeology
NL 9920 4547 A watching brief was undertaken between 30 July
and 1 August 2020 during excavation related to the construction
of a house on land S of 10 Cornaigbeg, Kenovay, Isle of Tiree.
The location of the new house lay approximately 50m to the N
of Dun Ceann a’ Bhaigh (Canmore ID: 21421, WoSAS Pin: 15).
Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (2020), p. 31)
A substantial deposit of windblown sand was uncovered beneath
the topsoil which appeared to have been deposited during at
least two significant storms. A series of cultivation remains were
present on top of the windblown sand. Beneath the windblown
sand lay an old ground surface which sealed three pits that were
partially revealed within one small area of the trench. Although
only partially excavated the fills of these pits, and a fourth pit
which cut through the old ground surface, were extremely sterile.
Although of some antiquity, the absence of any additional remains
means the date and purpose of these features remains unclear.
Two unstratified small body sherds of possible prehistoric pottery
were also recovered.
Archive and Report: NRHE
Funder: Private individual -
Oval ‘tortoise-shaped’ brooch with textile remains on reverse. 10th century
NMS catalogue entry: ‘Oval brooch with textile remains on reverse. 10th century.’ Found some time before 1872
1. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1870–2, 9, p. 446
‘10 June 1872 Tortoise-shaped brooch of bronze and six-inch bronze pin found on Tiree and donated to Museum of Society of Antiquaries’
2. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1873, volume 10, pp. 554–5 and image on 560
Anderson, J (1873) Notes on the Relics of the Viking Period of the Northmen in Scotland, illustrated by Specimens in the Museum:
‘One of a pair found in the island of Tiree was presented to the Museum in June 1872 by the late Rev Dr Norman MacLeod [1812–1872, a famous Gaelic-speaking minister in Glasgow, who is likely to have known many Tiree people]. Nothing further is known concerning the circumstances of their discovery than that they were found in a grave along with the peculiarly-shaped and massive bronze pin here figured … This brooch measures 41/2 inches in length, 23/4 inches in breadth and 11/2 inches in height. It is double, the under part having a flat rim with a band of lacertine [intertwined] ornamentation in panels. The plain portion of the under shell has been gilt. The upper shell has a raised boss in the centre, pierced with four openings. Two similar bosses are placed at the extremities of the longer and shorter diameters of the oval, and halfway between each pair of these bosses there are spaces for beads or studs, four in number, which have been fastened on by rivets of brass, one of which still remains in situ. From the central boss to the other bosses there are channelled depressions in the metal, in which are laid three rows of a small silver chain formed of two strands of a very fine wire twisted together, and forming a double diamond figure on the oval surface of the brooch. On 15th March 1847 a notice of a similar brooch found in Tiree was read to the Society and the brooch exhibited by Sir John Graham Dalzell [or Dalyell, an Edinburgh advocate with a keen interest in antiquities]. It is described as ‘resembling, to minuteness, several in the Museum’, and as these brooches usually occur in pairs, it was probably found with the one presented by Rev Dr MacLeod.’
3. RCAHMS 1980, no. 236 and plate 3:
‘A pair of ‘tortoise’ brooches and a bronze pin are said to have been found in a grave somewhere on Tiree. One of the brooches and the pin were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1872 (Accession nos: IL 219 & 220), and what may have been the other brooch was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1847, but it cannot now be traced. No further details of the burial are known’
4. Curle, J (1914) On recent Scandinavian Grave-finds from the Island of Oronsay, and from Reay, Caithness, with Notes on the Development and Chronology of the Oval Brooch of the Viking Time. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 48, pp. 292–315. Contains the passage: ‘a pair of brooches found in 1872 in Tiree, of which one specimen was presented to the National Museum’NMS catalogue entry: ‘Oval brooch with textile remains on reverse. 10th century.’ Found some time before 1872
1. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1870–2, 9, p. 446
‘10 June 1872 Tortoise-shaped brooch of bronze and six-inch bronze pin found on Tiree and donated to Museum of Society of Antiquaries’
2. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1873, volume 10, pp. 554–5 and image on 560
Anderson, J (1873) Notes on the Relics of the Viking Period of the Northmen in Scotland, illustrated by Specimens in the Museum:
‘One of a pair found in the island of Tiree was presented to the Museum in June 1872 by the late Rev Dr Norman MacLeod [1812–1872, a famous Gaelic-speaking minister in Glasgow, who is likely to have known many Tiree people]. Nothing further is known concerning the circumstances of their discovery than that they were found in a grave along with the peculiarly-shaped and massive bronze pin here figured … This brooch measures 41/2 inches in length, 23/4 inches in breadth and 11/2 inches in height. It is double, the under part having a flat rim with a band of lacertine [intertwined] ornamentation in panels. The plain portion of the under shell has been gilt. The upper shell has a raised boss in the centre, pierced with four openings. Two similar bosses are placed at the extremities of the longer and shorter diameters of the oval, and halfway between each pair of these bosses there are spaces for beads or studs, four in number, which have been fastened on by rivets of brass, one of which still remains in situ. From the central boss to the other bosses there are channelled depressions in the metal, in which are laid three rows of a small silver chain formed of two strands of a very fine wire twisted together, and forming a double diamond figure on the oval surface of the brooch. On 15th March 1847 a notice of a similar brooch found in Tiree was read to the Society and the brooch exhibited by Sir John Graham Dalzell [or Dalyell, an Edinburgh advocate with a keen interest in antiquities]. It is described as ‘resembling, to minuteness, several in the Museum’, and as these brooches usually occur in pairs, it was probably found with the one presented by Rev Dr MacLeod.’
3. RCAHMS 1980, no. 236 and plate 3:
‘A pair of ‘tortoise’ brooches and a bronze pin are said to have been found in a grave somewhere on Tiree. One of the brooches and the pin were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1872 (Accession nos: IL 219 & 220), and what may have been the other brooch was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1847, but it cannot now be traced. No further details of the burial are known’
4. Curle, J (1914) On recent Scandinavian Grave-finds from the Island of Oronsay, and from Reay, Caithness, with Notes on the Development and Chronology of the Oval Brooch of the Viking Time. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 48, pp. 292–315. Contains the passage: ‘a pair of brooches found in 1872 in Tiree, of which one specimen was presented to the National Museum’