Images

Image of Cnoc Seannda (Cairn(s)) by drewbhoy

West side of the mound looking over to Loch Finlaggan.

Image credit: drew/A/B
Image of Cnoc Seannda (Cairn(s)) by drewbhoy

Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age discoveries from around Finlaggan. Housed in the visitor centre.

Image credit: drew/A/B

Articles

Cnoc Seannda

The base of the mound is well over 50m wide and at least 5m tall, it provides a home to a chamber cairn and a Bronze Age cairn discovered by the Time Team.

The chamber entrance is on the south of the mound, its entrance noticeable by a row of stones. The Bronze Age cairn can be identified by its kerb. Also found were Mesolithic remains, some of which can be seen in the nearby visitor centre.

Finlaggan is a beautiful place and can be found by leaving the A846 between Ballygrant and Keills on the minor road heading west. Follow the minor road as it swings north, then take the first road heading west showing the way to the visitor centre.

Fantastic place, prehistory an added bonus.

Visited 2/8/2019.

Cnoc Seannda

This very large mound is right next to the visitor centre. You can’t possibly miss it! In the museum they have the Time Team episode playing on a loop when they visited and excavated the mound in 1994.

Also outside the visitor centre is another smaller stone. I asked the lady in the museum if she knew anything about the stone. She said that it was unknown at present if the stone is prehistoric or connected to the time of the Lord of the Isles. She added that a chap was due to visit the site later this year to carry out a dig. It was hoped that more can be discovered about the stone then.

The Time Team dig revealed animal bones, a flint arrowhead of Bronze Age type and a bone disc within a stone-lined chamber on top of the mound. There was found a Bronze Age cairn next to the chamber.

Miscellaneous

Cnoc Seannda
Cairn(s)

But the most surprising finds were on dry land at the loch side. A large mound overlooks the causeway to the islets and is near to a known burial ground. On arrival, the archaeologists were unanimous that this mound was a ‘ritual’ site, without being any more specific. Standing on this mound, a solitary standing stone (about five feet high) can be seen, beyond which (in clear weather) can be seen the famous rounded hills known as the Paps of Jura. As one of the Time team remarked, the stone in fact stands in the ‘cleavage’ of the Paps. In what might be a first for national TV, the assembled archaeologists all concurred that ‘Yes, there is an alignment here’. Is this the breakthrough for ‘ley hunting’? Academic acceptance broadcast to all the nation? Mr Watkins, what was a mere seventy years of waiting?

The Time team performed a resistivity survey on the mound, which showed various subsoil anomalies that were almost certainly not natural. The first turfs to be peeled away soon revealed mesolithic microflints – something quite unprecedented for this location. Further work led to the tops of two rows of substantial stones poking through the soil, rather like an oversize mouth of teeth. Was this a souterrain, the team debated? Before the trial excavation was concluded the remains of what was probably an ox leg had been laid bare and the consensus was that this may be a neolithic long barrow.

This in itself caused excitement as previously all known neolithic activity on Islay was around the coast. Meantime, the resistivity squad had been at work around the standing stone. At least three deep pits showed up and other ambiguous abnormalities. The culminating computer graphics showed us that these pits could make up a stone circle or, more probably, a stone avenue – with the Paps of Jura and the ‘long barrow’ mound in line with the axis of the avenue.

The long-running excavations on the islets had produced relatively little evidence of prehistoric activity, although the foundations of round houses had been detected below the medieval occupation of Eilean Mor. Dating evidence for these round houses was inconclusive, but it seems distinctly possible that they represent the settlement for the neolithic people who used and created the mound and stone ‘avenue’.

The Time team successfully battled against what, at times, was seriously Scottish weather to produce hitherto-unsuspected evidence of prehistoric activity at an important medieval ‘ritual site’. Clearly, much more work needs to be undertaken before full details are revealed and one hopes that further funding will be forthcoming.

Originally published in Mercian Mysteries No.23 May 1995.

Sites within 20km of Cnoc Seannda