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Cnoc Dubh

This site is of disputed antiquity. If you have any information that could help clarify this site's authenticity, please post below or leave a post in the forum.
Also known as:
  • Callanish VII
  • Cnoc a Botha

Nearest Town:Stornoway (19km ENE)
OS Ref (GB):   NB232302 / Sheets: 8, 13
Latitude:58° 10' 25.83" N
Longitude:   6° 42' 30.61" W

Added by Kammer

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Fieldnotes

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We visited this (or tried to) on the way to Airigh nam Bidearan and Druim nam Bidearan.

The problem in viewing the site is that, as stated in Canmore, an estate road now runs through it and it has subsequently been widened.

Also Canmore (unusually) gives no more than a six-figure grid reference - not accurate enough to know if you are in the right area of whatever remains.

What I can say is that, on the right as you ascend the estate road, a small excavation has been carried out by the side of the road near the (reconstructed?) beehive house. You can still see the pegs for laying out the grid. What looked like a back wall was all that was exposed.

Nothing in Canmore about this but it seems to be adding confirmation to the theory that this site was no more than a kale-yard belonging to the beehive house.

I took a photo of the excavated wall but I'm not going to post it since it has no TMA relevance.

Still worth a walk up this track though even if you are not going to the other sites. Good views over to Ceann Hulavig.

Visited 1 August 2004
greywether Posted by greywether
11th August 2004ce
Edited 11th August 2004ce

Miscellaneous

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I've not visited this site, but it seems to be a contentious one, thought by some to be the remains of a stone circle. Here is a quote taken from CANMORE describing the site:
What may be three unroofed shieling-huts and one enclosure are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Island of Lewis, Ross-shire 1853, sheet 25). This site lies within a system of head-dykes associated with the township NB23SW 49. Three unroofed buildings which may be shieling-huts, one sheep pen and one sheep dip are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1973).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 29 September 1997.
Apparantly the name Cnoc Dubh means black hillock in Gaelic.
Kammer Posted by Kammer
3rd December 2002ce
Edited 4th June 2004ce