Eilean Dòmhnuill Phase 2 Crannog Extension (Loch Olabhat, North Uist)
Eilean Dòmhnuill · Eilean Domhnuill artificial island Phase II · Loch Olabhat crannog east annexe
Early Neolithic (3700–3500 BCE)·Hebridean Early Neolithic (Eilean Dòmhnuill Ware, 3700 BCE)·🇬🇧 Scotland, Outer Hebrides, North Uist, Loch Olabhat (Loch Olabhat watershed, Benbecula causeway), United Kingdom
About
About Eilean Dòmhnuill Phase 2 Crannog Extension (Loch Olabhat, North Uist)
3700–3600 BCE, earliest Neolithic Hebrides), on Loch Olabhat (North Uist). 3500 BCE) 18 x 12 m eastern extension of quarried gneiss slabs and midden that carried 3 conjoining Neolithic houses (U-shaped walls 7 x 5 m) with in situ pottery (Hebridean ware), charred barley and ard marks. Notable because Eilean Dòmhnuill Phase 2 preserves the earliest stratigraphic house plan sequence in the Hebrides, 400 years before Skara Brae, and is the only Neolithic crannog with field-system ard marks beneath the causeway.
2009 reflooding.
Why it mattersEarliest settlement and earliest field ard marks in Outer Hebrides — 400 yr before Orkney Neolithic villages.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Causeway ard marks function
Theories
- 01Neolithic pioneer island colonization
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Primary 3700 BCE, Phase 2 3500 BCE
- Period
- Early Neolithic (3700–3500 BCE)
- Culture
- Hebridean Early Neolithic (Eilean Dòmhnuill Ware, 3700 BCE)
- Builders
- North Uist Early Neolithic pioneer farmers (first Hebrides colonization)
- Purpose
- Artificial island village on Loch Olabhat with field-system access
- Abandoned
- c.3400 BCE (loch rise)
- Rediscovered
- 1986 I. Armit; 1989–2005 excavation
- Excavation
- Excavated
-3700
Primary boulder island with causeway
-3500
Phase 2 slab extension and 3 houses
On the ground
Structures & features
57.6500° N · 7.3500° W · 5 m · 2 mapped features
Three Conjoined Houses (7 x 5 m) Phase 2
houseThree U-walled houses 7 x 5 m conjoined on annexe with hearths and Hebridean ware
57.6510° N · 7.3490° WGneiss Slab Platform and Causeway
causeway18 x 12 m gneiss slab annexe and 15-m boulder causeway to loch shore
57.6490° N · 7.3510° W