A heavy storm in 2005 ripped a stretch of coastline from North Uist’s tidal island of Baile Sear (Anglicised name: ‘Baleshare’), revealing a two thousand year-old settlement which seems to extend some way below the land of a neighbouring croft. Part of the settlement was excavated and recorded last year by Scape (Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion), a charity existing to research, conserve and promote the archaeology of Scotland’s coast. Then a high tide in August tore away another three metres of the coastline including the excavated area. This year professional archaeologists funded by Historic Scotland have been working on a three-week dig helped by volunteers from the local archaeology group, Access Archaeology.

Tom Dawson, a research fellow at St Andrews University, a senior archaeologist and a founder of Scape, is managing the Baile Sear project. He says: ‘This site is incredibly significant. It would be totally lost if Access Archaeology and Scape hadn’t started excavating it, and at the current rate of erosion it will be gone in three to four years. The information we’re getting from it will significantly increase our knowledge of that time’.

The site at Sloc Sabhaid on Baile Sear is a settlement of wheelhouses – round structures divided by internal radial walls forming rooms within the building. These structures are related to – and a little later than – the great Atlantic round houses or brochs, like Dun Carloway in Lewis.

Finds include a layer of at least four hearths. This indicates a long period of habitation of the wheelhouse. The top hearth is perfectly preserved, outlined by stones and with a clay foundation, marked with a cross. Mr Dawson says: ‘It looks like it’s been scratched on wet clay with the three middle fingers, but we have no idea why. I’ve never seen anything like it before’. There are also bones – human and animal and crafted artefacts made from bone, shell and pottery.