Description

The monument consists of two chambered burial cairns, one with a secondary Iron Age aisled house constructed into it, and a standing stone lying between the two cairns.

The remains all lie on the S slopes of South Clettraval, and command extensive open outlooks to the S and W. The S cairn, called Tigh Cloiche, has been disturbed by the construction of shielings, and its chamber is exposed. The cairn has measured at least 30m in diameter, but the S and W sides are too spread to allow an accurate measurement. Towards the centre is exposed a narrow, parallel-sided chamber of large blocks. The entrance was from the E.

Some 220m to the NNW is a single large standing stone, 1.6m high by 1.1m wide. A further 180m NNW are the remains of a second mutilated chambered cairn with later occupation as an Iron Age settlement. This site was excavated in 1934 and 1946-8. The cairn is a large mound, built into the hillside, with remains of the S and E sides of a peristalith of large boulders implying a rectangular plan.

The chamber, which opens to the E, is in five sections, and is of the "passage grave"type. To the W of the chamber are the remains of an aisled round house with several outbuildings, including a sub-rectangular structure interpreted as a byre. All of these later structures lie within the curve of the W part of a wall which may once have encircled the whole site. The remains of this complex were not completely excavated, and archaeological deposits survive.

The area to be scheduled is in two parts: a 100m square, aligned N-S, containing the SE cairn and an area around it, and a triangle with N side of 200m, E side of 235m and SW side of 310m containing the NW cairn, the aisled house and outbuildings and the standing stone, together with an area around them in which further remains may survive, all as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a group of Neolithic ritual monuments which have the potential to provide information about prehistoric funerary and ritual architecture and burial practices, with Iron Age remains which are important in themselves, as one of the most complete non-defensive Iron Age complexes so far identified in the Western Isles, and for the light it may shed upon the frequently observed phenomenon, throughout northern Scotland, of the Iron Age re-use of chambered tombs as dwelling-places.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NF 77 SE 14.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland