Time Team - Allasdale Dunes, Barra, Western Isles, Scotland - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The evaluation revealed stratified archaeological deposits potentially dating from the Late Neolithic through to the Iron Age. These included a possible Neolithic building and associated cultivation soil; a number of Early Bronze Age burials within stonelined
cists, including inhumations and cremations, radiocarbon dated to 1880-1520 BC; and two Iron Age roundhouses, the earliest dating to 750-400 BC.

Evidence of Late Iron Age activity sealed beneath the sand dunes near the blow-out was identified through the geophysical survey, which revealed the well preserved remains of a very large wheelhouse, the largest yet found on Barra. This wheelhouse was initially identified in the 1950s but had been lost beneath the shifting sand dunes.

Investigation into the possible Viking burial mound identified no evidence of a boat or buried archaeological structures, and it appears that this is merely a sand dune.