33019: ARDROIL, LEWIS – FINDSPOT (Norse – 1067 AD to 1266 AD)

Summary:

FINDSPOT (Norse – 1067 AD to 1266 AD)
Findspot of the Lewis chessmen

Location:

NB 042 323

Full description:

NB03SW 5 042 323.

(Area: 042 323) Seventy-eight chessmen of walrus ivory fourteen ivory table-men or draught board pieces and a buckle were found in a small, subteranean stone building ‘like an oven’, which was uncovered in the spring of 1831, when the sea undermined and carried away a considerable portion of a sandbank in a wind swept gully in the sand at the SE base of Eornal (NB 041 324).
Though they are generally accepted as Scandinavian of the 12th century, Wilson argues in favour of their being Scottish-Norman of the same period, on the basis of their similarity to seals, sculptures etc. of that period. At least eight sets, none complete, were represented. Except for eleven chess-men, which are in NMAS, all the pieces, including the buckle, are in the British Museum (See NB03SW 6 – possibly associated scructure)
D Wilson 1863; British Museum 1968.

Now no trace of the "oven-like" building and no further information. Visited by OS (R L) 28 June 1969.

References:

British Museum Replicas (Catalogue of Casts), British Museum Replicas (Catalogue of Casts). 11-12 illusts
Prehistoric annals of Scotland, Publisher: MacMillan & Co, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland. Vol. 2, 341-61

Acknowledgement:

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