Hebridean Archaeological Sites
Dursainean, near Garrabost, Isle of Lewis
Main Article
Location: NB 528 334
This communal burial tomb would have been an important highly visible monument of the first farming people who lived in the peninsula of An Rubha in the Neolithic period.
This cairn occupies a conspicuous position on a low hill overlooking Garrabost. Much of the cairn material has been lost, and it is grassed over, but it clearly was almost square in plan, measuring some 19 metres across. It appears to have had a slightly concave stone facade creating a forecourt on its south-eastern side. The passage way, equally, faces south-east, towards the midwinter sunrise which can be seen rising dramatically from the hills of mainland Scotland across the wide expanse of the Minch.
Local volunteers doing
maintenance work at Clach Ghlas
It is one of the focal points on a waymarked circular walk, 2.2 km long, from Garrabost, which also features Clach Ghlas (the Grey Stone), on the banks of the small stream of Allt na Muilne. Clach Ghlas (NF 5281 3340) is an enigmatic triangular standing stone 1.7 metres high, standing in the centre of a mound 2 metres high and 30 metres long and partly surrounded by a ditch. The site has never been excavated, but there are traces of a rectangular stone chamber beside the great stone, and perhaps a circular cell at one end of the long mound. It is likely to have been a prehistoric burial monument, perhaps dating back 3000 years to the Bronze Age or earlier.
SMR Database Entries
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has an extensive online Sites and Monuments Records database, with in-depth details about the historical, cultural and archaeological sites and monuments in the Hebrides. This site is featured in this database, and the list below gives links to read more. These links will open in a new browser window / tab.
