32206: GOB EIRER – FORT (Viking – 790 AD to 1066 AD)

Summary:

FORT (Viking – 790 AD to 1066 AD)
Viking Age promontory fort

Location:

NB 03151 33979

Full description:

NB03NW 21 031 340

NB 050 360 In spring 1995 a team from the Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh carried out fieldwork in a 1000 hectare area between Uig sands and Aird Uig in Uig parish. The presence of the large machair area around UIg sands within this survey area lead to the examination of the state of coastal erosion not only on the machair but also along the cliff areas to the N and W along the Aird Uig Peninsula.
NB 0315 3397 Promontory fort.
A full report will be lodged with the NMRS.
Sponsors: Department of Archaeology (University of Edinburgh), Russell Trust, Council for British Archaeology, Archaeology Society, University of Edinburgh.
C Burgess and M Church 1995

NB 031 340 Located on the N shore of the Camas Uig, immediately to the W of the township of Crowlista is the promontory stack known as Gob Eirer. On its landward side this stack is defended by a wall c 2m thick crossing its width with a roughly central entrance.
Phosphate sampling before excavation produced negative results. One trench was opened crossing the wall and extending into the interior with the aim of investigating the nature and establishing the date of the site. This trench revealed that the site had multiple phases and consisted of complex stonework. The entrance was c 1m wide with several phases of paving, the earlier of which led to a cobbled path running N-S. To the W and E of this cobbled path were the foundation courses of two rectilinear drystone structures with walls up to 1.5m wide. Both structures had clearly visible entrances, although time and remit constraints meant that their interiors could not be examined.
Excavation beneath the cobbled surface revealed four parallel ditches 0.2m wide and 0.1m deep and several stake-holes. It is unclear as yet whether these were original defensive features, cultivation, drainage, or even the remains of linear wooden buildings, though it is clear that they underlay and pre-dated the stone structures on the site. Large areas of cultivation on the shore next to the site appear to be related to pre-Improvement settlement in the immediate vicinity; however, it is possible that the first 8-10 rigs running parallel (E-W) to the erosion edge could be the remains of ancient rigging related to Gob Err as they are distinctly shallower and narrower than the pre-Improvement rigs inland.
Samples of pottery and charcoal, once analysed, will provide an accurate date; preliminary assessment indicates that this site may relate to Norse or Early Christian occupation in the late 1st millennium AD.
Sponsors: Historic Scotland, Edinburgh University Archaeology Department, Russell Trust.
C Burgess, J Dempsey, S Gilmour and A Jackson 1996

References:

1995. ‘Uig Sands to Aird Uig, Isle of Lewis (Uig parish), survey’, Publisher: Council for Scottish Archaeology, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland. 112
1996. ‘Gob Eirer (Uig parish), promontory fort’, Publisher: Council for Scottish Archaeology, Pubished: 1997 Discovery and Excavation, Scotland. 111

Acknowledgement:

Information provided by Western Isles Council Sites & Monuments Record, January 2006.