32964: AIRD SLEITENISH – STONE CIRCLE? (Undated), CAIRN? (Undated)

Summary:

STONE CIRCLE? (Undated)
CAIRN? (Undated)
Stone circle? cairn?

Location:

NB 031 198

Full description:

NB01NW 2 031 198.

NB 031 198: Stone Circle, Aird Sleitenish. On a tidal island approximately 100ft in diameter, nine stones 1 1/2ft to 2ft in height lie on the perimeter of a circle with a diameter of 21.76ft. In the NW quadrant is a raised area of small stones loosely covered with grass and measuring 9ft by 7ft. There were large quantities of ash close to the surface.
There may have been an outer circle of stones 4ft to 5ft in height of which three remain in the SW quadrant.
G Macpherson 1973.

There is a mound on the N part of a small peninsula (an island at high spring tides only) on the E side of Aird Sleitenishon the S shore of Loch Tamanavay.
The sub-circular mound, about 10m in diameter and probably 1m high, is covered with grass with many small stones and about 10 stones up to 1m across, mostly not earthfast, protruding. One thick slab may be a fallen monolith. There does not appear to be any other evidence of a standing stone circle. The mound may be artificial but there is no clear evidence of kerb stones or a chamber. There are at least five old feannags/lazy beds lying partly over the S side of the cairn. On the W side there is heather growing on peat.
The peninsula is formed of stony glacial till and is surrounded by a wave-washed shore of stones and boulders.
MR Curtis and GR Curtis, 1992.

‘The monument…comprises the remains of a small stone circle. The area to be scheduled is irregular measuring a maximum of 30m N-S by 40m E-W, to include the whole area of the island.’
HS Scheduling Document 4 March 1992.

References:

The stone circles of the British Isles, Publisher: Yale University Press, The Stone Circles of the British Isles. 357
1973. ‘Aird Sleitenish, stone circle’, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland. 48
1992. ‘Aird Sleitinish (Uig parish): possible burial cairn’, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland. 85 plan; fig 85

Acknowledgement:

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