Description

Buaile Risary is a large green mound, topped by the ruins of recent buildings. The mound is approximately 50m in diameter, within a slight ditch. Excavations has shown that there are remains of Iron Age settlement within the upper portions of this mound, including a large circular chambered structure, probably an aisled-house, together with a number of smaller buildings. The appearance of the mound and the fact that the Iron Age structures lie near to its top suggest that other, and potentially earlier, remains lie buried beneath the excavated features.

A small stone bearing 10 cup-marks lie on the N slope of the mound, while to its E are 2 small fields, each slightly scooped into the hillside at the upper end terraced at the lower end. The area to be scheduled is approximately circular, 100m in diameter, centred on the E side of the mound, to include the mound, its surrounding ditch, the cup-marked stone and the small fields.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

This monument is of national importance as a fine example of a settlement mound, used over a long period of time, on the upper edges of practicable agricultural land in the Western Isles. Its importance is enhanced because its archaeological potential has been demonstrated by limited excavation, and because the fields surviving around it point to the possibility of recovering information relating to past agricultural practices.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NF 77 SE 11 and 17.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland