Monument record 2139 - GARENIN, LEWIS

NB14SE 9.00 centred 195 442.

During June and July 1994 survey and excavation work was carried out around the village of Garenin. Situated on the coast to the NE of Carloway, Garenin consists of around 25 crofts of which 18 are occupied. The study had three main aims: 1. 'To prepare detailed survey drawings of the seven abandoned 19th/20th-century black houses at the W end of the village prior to redevelopment of the village as an educational centre. 2. To carry out excavations within four of the abandoned black houses (Buildings 3c and f, Building 4 and Building 5b) to aid in the reconstruction of these buildings.
3. To carry out field survey in the surrounding area to help put the village into its archaeological context (an area of approximately 1,500ha, delineated by the grazing lands of the village and including all of the immediate crofting land within the village). The results of this survey are too extensive to list here.
A report containing all survey drawings, descriptions of the excavations and full details of the field survey results will be lodged with the NMRS and with the Garenin Trust for whom the work was done. It is hoped that a further season of survey and excavation can be completed during 1995.
Sponsors: Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, The Garenin Trust and RCAHMS.
C Burgess, J Henderson and T Rees 1994.

NB 1950 4400 Based in and around the village of Garenin, the Garenin Landscape Survey carried out its second season of fieldwork during September 1995. Excavations were carried out on six sites that were discovered during the previous season's fieldwalking.
GLS02/95 NB 1928 4517 Illicit still. Excavations very quickly revealed a complex multi-period structure with a large central fire pit and a double floor drain or flue (one drain situated on top of another) leading away through a series of floors and hearth structures surrounding it. Glass and iron were recovered along with several pieces of fabric and a quantity of coked coal and charcoaled peat (both smokeless fuels). The glass recovered seems to be the remains of spirit bottles and demi-jons suggesting that stilling was occuring, as does the presence of smokeless fuels. The presence of charcoal and coke as well as large numbers of iron objects might also indicate that the site was used as a smithy.
External excavations indicated that the visible structure was built on top of an earlier and larger building. Several artefacts recovered from disturbed contexts seem to indicate an early date for this earlier building.
GLS06/95 NB 1892 4495 Stone feature. Situated on the high cliffs immediately to the N of the village was a small stone feature consisting of several slabs of flat Gneiss. The stones sat on to bedrock and appeared to form what was probably a small day shelter for a local shepherd. No dating or artefactual evidence was recovered from this site.
GLS10/95 NB 1880 4990 Promontory fort (Burgess 1995, fig 40). Identified during survey in the previous season this promontory fort sits on a stack immediately to the N of the village. Noted originally just as a sizeable wall (100m long, up to 3m thick and standing up to four courses high) that cut the stack from the mainland, extensive examination this year revealed eight to ten platforms one of which has a circular stone structure some 3m in diameter situated on it. The survey seen here was carried out to show the extremely defensible nature of the site (contour intervals at 1m) and a small excavation was carried out on the edge of the circular structure. While no dating or artefactual evidence was found during the excavation, the stone structure was confirmed as such and underneath the stone wall a large pit was discovered indicating several periods or phases of use. Small flecks of charcoal were recovered during wet sieving indicating potential for plant macro fossil work in future seasons.
GLS99/95 NB 1938 4402 Corn-drying kiln. Situated on croft 10, this structure is nestled against a bedrock outcrop. Its megalithic construction seemed to indicate a relatively early date of construction. This was confirmed by its relationship to a later black house in the immediate vicinity, the construction of which dates to about 1800.
Excavation revealed three periods of use, a final phase of use as a birthing chamber for lambs, and two phases of use as a drying kiln. These two phases of use as a kiln manifested themselves as a shortening and relaying of the flue floor.
Samples already taken have proved to be rich in plant macro fossils, and will allow the study of which varieties of crop were being cultivated and dried at the time of use of the kiln.
GLS190/95 NB 1934 4426 Cairn/shieling. This site, a small water-washed cairn, is situated less than 50m to the N of structure 4 in an area that was not walked during 1994. Upon excavation it was found to be a habitational structure with drystone, earthcore walls and a peat floor. Water damage had removed most of the N edge of the structure and detailed interpretation proved to be impossible, though it seems likely that this site is that of any early dwelling or possibly a beehive cell.
GLS191/95 NB 1925 4513 Illicit still. This site was missed during the first season's fieldwalking. Identified as a still when local knowledge suggested that a second such site could be found in the immediate vicinity of GLS02/95, it was decided to excavate a small area within the structure to examine stilling technology and gather dating and environmental evidence to compare to the first still.
Excavation revealed that the structure is of turf construction and indeed has all the features of GLS02/95. Differences were noted, including that the fire pit was offset to one side of the structure and that the two drains running from the fire pit run side by side rather than on top of each other. Dateable samples and artefacts (similar to those found on GLS02/95) were recovered.
During the 1995 season fieldwalking was also carried out over an area of about 300 hectares of rough grazing land. This field-walking took the area covered to the N of the Dail Mor Grazing boundary and as far S as the edge of Loch Carloway. Sites identified included a possible Norse settlement at Laimishader (NB 1845 4245) and the site of a third possible illicit still to the E of the two already recorded sites (NB 202 452). Detailed surveys were carried out on five sites (one of which may be seen above) and it is hoped that in future seasons more of this type of recording work will be carried out.
A full report will be lodged with the NMRS and interim available also through Lewis Library service.
Sponsors: Garenin Trust, Department of Archaeology (University of Edinburgh), Russell Trust, Society of Antiquities, Scotland.
C Burgess 1995.

Garenin shows at two phases of development evident from the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Island of Lewis, Ross-shire 1853, sheet12).
The earliest phase would appear to be a small township clustered together on the small hillock called Sithean (see NB14SE 9.01). A further building to the W (NB14SE 9.02) may be a second foci of Garenin township which may have grown before the crofting township was laid laid out.
They were replaced by the more extensive crofting township which is shown on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (1897), which modified its appearence over time to that depicted on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1974).
Information from RCAHMS 18 September 1997.

NB 193 442 One of the blackhouses (House 6) was excavated in its entirety, including the barn and trial trenches within the byre, in order to supply detailed information about furnishings and the adaptation of structural features throughout the occupation of the house for a proposed reconstruction.
The complex of buildings on Croft 3 comprises some of the oldest buildings in the village, and provides a record of the rebuilding and shifting of the blackhouse. This allows us to examine the change in morphology and complexity of the basic house form as a result of the adoption of a new form of land tenure between the post-medieval and crofting periods. House 3d was aligned N-S and had been shortened at some point in the past by the addition of a new N end-wall. The trench placed within this building uncovered a stone-built platform which had undergone two phases of additions, resulting in an unusual curved platform leading in from the doorway on the E. A hearth and evidence of metalworking were found on the top of this platform. The byre end of the house to the S had a clay floor with two slab-capped drains cut into it, one of which ran down the centre of the byre and one which curved from the E side of the platform and joined the central drain. These drains are original as they ran beneath the additional sections of platform. A 2 x 1m trench was placed to the N of the secondary end-wall to examine whether the platform survived beneath what is now a gravel-covered car park. The platform was found to survive, indicating that the rest of the house interior may also survive beneath the car park.
A trench was placed to the W of House 3d, which encompassed the corner of Barn 3g and revealed unusual gap left between the walls of 3g and 3d, measuring between 0.4-0.8m wide, which had been filled with midden material to a depth of about 0.7m. Upon excavating the midden, a lintelled drain was discovered in the wall of House 3d which opened out into the gap between the buildings, where a channel had been cut to allow water to drawin past Barn 3g.
There was an opportunity to excavate a drain running through the wall core of a barn, as the barn of House 7 had been shortened, leaving the original wall surviving to only two courses high, visible as a turf-covered mound. The inner and outer wall faces and part of the original floor surface were uncovered. The drain was constructed as a gap in each wall face with a lintel, and a row of supporting edge stones running through the wall core with flat slabs on top. This would have ensured the weight of the wall core on top did not collapse the drain, while the edge stones would also have held the wall core in place and prevented it from spilling into the drain. It demonstrated that the construction of these drains was integral to the wall.
A total ofinine trial trenches measuring 2 x 1m were placed within blackhouses and barns to assess the extent of the surviving floor surfaces, and to examine features which were visible on the surface, such as stone partitions or platforms. These trenches provided information about floor construction techniques and how internal furnishing improved as the result of progressive methods such as a hardcore layer of large stones with a skin of clay on top. Another two trial trenches were excavated on the crofts to provide sections across a field wall and a turf bank.
Many artefacts typical of the crofting blackhouse were recovered, including glass and ceramics, iron tools (domestic and agricultural), and items of clothing (various textiles and a large nuber of shoes). There were also a number of opportunities to take bulk samples of collapsed roofing material, complete with heather rope and timbers.
Detailed records, comprising elevation drawings and photogrammetry, were taken of all the structural elevations that had not been recorded in previous seasons.
A full report will be lodged with the GareneinTrust and NMRS.
Sponsor: Garenin Trust
C Burgess, M Johnson and S Campbell 1998, 105-6

NB 192 441 (centre) A watching brief was conducted between April 1999 and April 2000 during the restoration of six blackhouses in the conservation village of Gearrannan, Isle of Lewis.
Peripheral features such as wells and a stone dyke were protected by fencing. One structure, House 6, was restored using traditional techniques to its near-original appearance for use as a site museum. The other five houses were reduced to foundation level or below, and clay floors, drainage systems and interior deposits removed by machine down to natural, the structural stone being set aside for reuse in the rebuilding of the village. External ground surfaces with stone drains and paved areas were also lowered and drainage trenches dug by machine. The houses were then rebuilt from scratch. Several other blackhouses were demolished for stone, including two near the entrance to the conservation village. These were outwith the area owned by the Gearrannan Trust, so no recording of these buildings was carried out.
However, the comprehensive approach to the rebuilding of the blackhouses did allow full cross-sections of all five houses to be drawn. Recording carried out during the earlier landscape survey was also extended, although at times only limited further archaeological observation was possible.
All houses examined showed a similar pattern of construction. The area of each house was dug 0.15-0.3m into the clay below the topsoil across the width of the house. The inner stone wall faces were built up from the base of this excavated area, but the outer faces were built up from the higher external ground surface. The core of the wall was filled with peaty topsoil and clay dug out from the the house site. Peat tended to be dug out first and was found predominantly in the lower wall fills; clay was dug out from the lower levels and was predominantly in the upper wall fills, although some walls consisted of mixed lenses. Water gathered under the clay floor below the upper, living quarters and was carried away under the floor through end-set stones into drains at the lower end of the house. This flowed into open ditches or stone-lined and capped external drains.
Houses 4 and 4a. In Houses 4a and 4b, which were built last, against a steep, wet slope to the rear, a development of this principle was observed. The rear external wall face was built up from the rising slope, in places more than 1m higher than the internal face. Although the upper core of this wall was filled with the usual clay and peat, the lower half was filled with free-draining loose stones which allowed the water from the slope free egress to the sub-floor drainage space which was then carried out to the front and sides through drains. This system was still functioning successfully until disturbed by machining, when the house floor immediately filled up with water. However, restoration of these houses included the digging of deep, rock-cut drains to the rear of the houses, and the raising up of solid internal floor levels.
These houses had been built from the lower, W end upwards. The end walls had not been periodically taken down and rebuilt. A butress at the bottom end of House 4a was a secondary addition to strengthen the building. The upper gable walls , windows and internal partition walls were secondary.
House 7. The house originally had a central hearth. Its end byre wall had been taken down and rebuilt. The barn to the rear had originally run the full length of the house, later truncated, with well-laid clay floors.
House 6. The end byre wall was periodically rebuilt. The secondary partition wall had been built without foundation directly upon organic deposits 0.8m above the original byre floor.
House 3 complex. House 3d had been built across and clasping the upper ends of the earliest house in the group, a creaga-type house comprising Houses 3f, 3g and 3c (now the toilet block). This was later extended, and another house (3e) built at right-angles onto its lower end. Most of the old creaga-type house then went out of use, but remained well-preserved. House 3d was eventually truncated. A series of stone floors, hearths, and platforms were recorded in House 3d, and a small polished stone axehead was found in earth which had infilled the core between House 3d and the earlier complex. Houses 3d and 3e were restored as simple units without reference to their integral relationship with the earlier structures.
Sponsor: Urras nan Gearrannan
Knott, C M 2000, 103-4

C, J and T Burgess, Henderson , 1994, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 96 (Bibliographic reference). SWE34040.

C and S Burgess and Gilmour, 1995, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 112-113 (Bibliographic reference). SWE38882.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 1998, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41173.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2000, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41184.