Monument record 1165 - AIRD A'MHORAIN, NORTH UIST

NF87NW 3 835 786.

(NF 8353 7868) A small well, variously known as 'of the Priest', 'of the Cross' and 'of the cups' is situated on the beach, 200 yards west of the graveyard of Ard a'Bhorain (NF87NW 16). It is at the base of a massive rock just above HWM, on the face of which a Latin cross, 14ins long, is inscribed. The well still functions.
Nine yards to the SE are 24 cupmarks arranged along the twin narrow and parallel ridges of a boulder embedded in the beach. Other cupmarks are said to exist, both above the well and on various stones at the NE side of the same promontory but Beveridge was unable to find them.
E Beveridge 1911.

The incised cross at NF 8350 7869, at the side of the 'Well of the Priest', and the cupmarked stone at NF 8351 7868 are as described above and as photographed. The well is now filled with stones and is no longer functional.
Another cupmarked stone, measuring 3.0m x 1.2m x 1.1m was found at NF 8353 7869. It bears eleven distinct cups at its north end and a possible twelfth at its southern end. None of the cupmarks on these stones is regular in size or depth and they may be natural.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (R D) 20 June 1965.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 300 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 50, No. 165; 86, No. 265 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

M and G Ponting and Ponting, 1977d, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 18 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33346.