32791: Traigh na Berie – SHELL MIDDEN (Undated)

Summary:

SHELL MIDDEN (Undated)
Midden, shell

Location:

NB 10028 36293

Full description:

no. 30
On the outcrop rock at Gridige, projecting into the sea, is a small patch of highly concentrated shell midden. This is on the same outcrop around the base of which the boat noost (site 27 – SMR no. 1841) has been constructed. This material is not clearly of anthropogenic origin, but other explanations are equally difficult to formulate. It comprises a depth of up to 0.4m of mixed compacted shall fragments in a brown silty-sandy matrix. This overlies a thin band of darker soil over the outcrop rock. The midden ispreserved only in isolated small pockets in the bedrock.
Armit 1992, 55

References:

Ian Armit. 1992. CFA, University of Edinburgh Archaeological Field Survey of the Bhaltos (Valtos) Peninsula, Lewis.
Burgess, Christopher & Church, Michael. 1997. 2 volumes, surveyed 1996, covering the 100m above the high tide line, and the intertidal zone. Coastal Erosion Assessment, Lewis. A Report for Historic Scotland.

Acknowledgement:

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

Hebcon: merged with MWE72687