Monument record 863 - CEARDACH RUADH, BALESHARE, NORTH UIST

NF76SE 9 7763 6157.

(Area : NF 776 617) Remains of what appears to be a wheel house, exposed by coastal erosion, are situated at A'Ceardach Ruadh (The Red Smiddy) on the west side of Baleshare Island where the machair ends in a sandy cliff above the beach. Two distinct floors were recognisable 8 or 9ft above HWMOST, and beneath the floors there was a deposit of stained sand with thick sherds.
About 40 sherds of thinner, typical undecorated 'wheelhouse' pottery were found along the foot of the cliff, all apparently from the wheelhouse. (H Fairhurst and W Ritchie 1963)
E Beveridge (1911) found slag and ashes here in quantity, and objects of flint, antler & pottery. He adds, apparently speaking of the area generally, '...Here cists and bones are sometimes disclosed... and pins of bone and brass have been found.'
The finds are in the NMAS. (PSAS 1922)
E Beveridge 1911; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1922; H Fairhurst and W Ritchie 1963.

NF 775 617. A skeleton was excavated in September 1964 at the Ceardach Ruadh prehistoric site. Details of the excavation are held by Mr Crawford.
I A Crawford 1964.

This site, at NF 7763 6157, is in the early stages of excavation. Without further information from the excavators it cannot be readily identified as a wheel-house.
Visited by OS (J T T) 31 May 1965.

A local informant states that sherds of ancient pottery are often found at Ceardach Ruadh.
I Fraser 1973.

NF 776 615 The site was initially cored to establish the horizontal extent of the midden exposed in the sand dune by erosion. Humus-stained sand and midden deposits were found up to 100m from the beach and for at least 50m along its length. The midden face was straightened, drawn and sampled. The partial remains of a drystone circular structure and other stone structures were found. On either side, the midden was about 3m in depth beneath 1m of clean sand. A second midden was found beneath the first, separated from it by about 0.5m of clean sand.
J Barber 1984c.

NF 776 615 Small-scale salvage excavation of a cist burial, together with an assessment of coastal erosion was carried out on this previously excavated site. Tidal erosion has removed approximately 7m to 8m of the beach-front in the past 10 years and continues to expose cultivated soils and midden associated with the previously excavated prehistoric structures. Cut into the upper part of these deposits was a long cist containing an extended unhumation.
The cist was overlain by stained sand with indistinct layer boundaries, over a buried soil of dark-brown sand, some 0.05m deep. This latter soil extended unbroken over the cist, separated from it by a thin layer of stained, grey-brown sand, indicating that the cist was roofed originally at ground level. The cist was cut directly into the top of layers rich in peat ash and other indicators of domestic midden. Less than half of the cist survived, the remainder having fallen onto the beach. The surviving structure indicated that the cist had been in excess of 1.3m in length, with a width at the surviving end of 0.5m, and a depth of 0.4m. It was lined with side slabs of local gneiss and capped wirth lintels of the same material. Two lintels survived of which the one nearest the erosion face had partially slipped, crushing and wdging the upper rib cage of the skeleton.
The skeletal material appears to represent the remains of an extended inhumation aligned NNW (the head) to SSE. Two cattle teeth were found in the area of the neck and shoulders of the skeleton. These were the only non-human skeletal material in the burial and appear to have been deliberately placed. The burial is most likely to be Later Iron Age in date.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland
I Armit 1993

Small scale salvage excavation of a second burial was carried out on this site in 2000, by Dr M. MacLeod, CnES (event record WE27) . This suggests the presence of a diffuse cemetery.

NF 776 615 Salvage excavation of a prone, male inhumation was carried out in May 2000. The skeleton was buried within the deep midden deposits of this known Iron Age site (NMRS NF 76 SE 9). It was oriented N-S, unaccompanied, in a shallow cut, and covered by a layer of white quartz beach pebbles. The surrounding layers of midden were virtually finds-free, and no dating evidence was recovered. It would seem likely, however, that the burial is part of the diffuse Iron Age cemetery known from earlier finds in this area.
Sponsor: HS
M MacLeod 2001, 102

The site has been apparently largely destroyed by erosion in the spring storms 2002.
MML 2.5.2002

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 229 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

PSAS, 1921-2, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 16 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9178.

H and W Fairhurst and Ritchie, 1963, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 31-2 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13117.

I A Crawford, 1964d, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 33 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13118.

PSAS, 1972-4, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 325 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9231.

I Fraser, 1973, Scot Stud, 159, no. 30 (Bibliographic reference). SWE4148.

DES, 1975, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 60 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9765.

PSAS, 1975-6, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 333 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9731.

J Barber, 1984c, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 44 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12925.

I Armit, 1993b, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 113 (Bibliographic reference). SWE28581.

Mary MacLeod, 2000, A' Cheardach Ruadh, Baile Sear, Uibhist a' Tuath (Unpublished document). SWE41032.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2001, Discovery and Escavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41185.