Heanish Machair
Survey
Darko Maričević – University of Reading
NM 0376 4368 In the 1962 volume of DES Fred Tebbutt reported
the discovery of ‘an irregular semi-circle of large stones
which appear to form part of a circle 30 feet in diameter’, in
an eroding mound on Heanish machair. He observed that the
structure was dug into ‘an older shell midden layer’ in which
he found animal bones, flint scrapers, wood ash and pottery
sherds, which he thought were probably Bronze Age. The
pottery was placed in the National Museum in Edinburgh,
but no further work was carried out and the eroded part
of the mound returned to grass concealing any sign of the
midden or the stone structure.
In an attempt to learn more about the site and the associated
finds a gradiometer survey was carried out in Heanish
on 17–18 August 2010. Nine NW–SE orientated 30 x 30m
grids were surveyed using a Bartington Grad-601 fluxgate
gradiometer at 1m traverse spacing. Four of the grids were
placed over the mound and another five over the adjacent
coastal strip of machair, which is affected by active wind
and sea erosion. No definitive archaeological anomalies were
found in the surveyed part of the coastal strip. However, a
further survey of areas to the S that are threatened by erosion
is recommended. The survey of the mound succeeded in
locating Tebbutt’s structure, which for the main part encloses
a circular space between 10–15m in diameter, but also has a
projection to the NE, which appears to form an entrance and
which gives the structure a bulb-shaped appearance in plan.
Archive: University of Reading
Funder: An Iodhlann Archive and Museum, Tiree and SHES,
University of Reading
(Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (2010), p. 50)