Description

The monument comprises a bow-sided rectangular building with ancillary structure, situated at 5m OD adjacent to the shore at Port na Lice.

The monument is aligned N-S, measuring approximately 13.3m N-S by 5.3m E-W internally, surviving as low, turfed-over, stone-built wall foundations up to 2.2m thick. Immediately to the S of the structure, and attached to it, is further walling suggesting an ancillary building with internal dimensions of 6.5m N-S x 4.4m E-W. This ancillary structure incorporates a bedrock outcrop in its foundations. The plan is suggestive of a Norse house, closely comparable to structures in Unst, Shetland, which have been dated by excavation to the eleventh and twelfth centuries AD.

The area to be scheduled is rectangular in plan, measuring 50m N-S by 35m E-W, to include the remains described and an area around, within which evidence relating to the construction and use of the house may be expected to survive. The area is marked in red on the accompanying map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as the remains of a bow-sided rectangular house, possibly of Norse date and therefore a very rare survival, especially on the W coast. The monument has the potential to provide important information on the Norse settlement of the area including domestic architecture and aspects of its economy.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NM48SW 10.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland