Description

Tigh Talamhanta (which translates as "the house under the ground") consists of a large mound containing the remains of a late Iron Age farmstead of the type referred to as an aisled house, with an attached souterrain. The remains of combined barn and byre lie nearby, and both this structure and the aisled house itself are enclosed, together with just under one hectare of land, within a contemporary bank of stones and earth.

The site was excavated to high standards for the period in 1950-3, and since that date has fallen into disrepair, but sufficient of interest remains to justify the protection of this important site. The area to be scheduled is irregular in plan, bounded by a line running 5m outside the visible enclosure bank and defined on the SW, where the bank is missing, by the line of a small stream. It has a maximum N-S dimension of 120m and E-W of 100m, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

This monument is of national importance on several grounds. It is a good field example of a type of upland agricultural settlement typical of the later Iron Age in the Western Isles. It is the site of an important excavation, and although this excavation was conducted carefully for the date, much information could still be extracted by modern excavation, particularly as regards evidence of past agricultural practices and land-use in general.

Finally, it is an element in a larger landscape containing a variety of different later prehistoric settlement evidence, which taken together has great potential to enhance knowledge of the defensive and domestic architecture of this period, and of associated social and economic conditions.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NF 60 SE 2.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland