In 2005 a major storm eroded a dune next to the beach at Allasdale, Barra, exposing human remains. They were first noticed by Barra artist Moira Bard and identified as human by a local doctor, after which a team of archaeologists was called in. The site was clearly at risk from further erosion, so Historic Scotland funded an urgent rescue dig.

When the team of experts investigated this sandy machair (a Gaelic word meaning a fertile low-lying coastal plain found only in the north and west of Scotland and Ireland) they found a number of Bronze-Age cist (or kist) burials. These are burials in which stones are used to line a pit into which the body is laid or the cremated remains deposited; a further flat stone, or stones, may be used to cover the top.

Altogether they excavated four graves containing the remains of at least 13 individuals, including infants and even foetuses. There were also the remains of two pots in the graves and various other finds, including pottery, a stone axe, hammer stones and bone tools, scattered around. The graves were dated to 1880-1490 BCE, in the middle of the Bronze Age, but the Allasdale machair was inhabited from the Stone Age onwards so some of the finds may well have been from other periods.

There are a number of other features, including further cists, in the area also at risk from erosion. So an e-mail to Time Team enquired whether they would be interested in carrying out another rescue dig and taking the investigation further. Not long afterwards the usual 50-odd archaeologists and diggers plus crew required for a Time Team programme descended on the island, booked up all available accommodation and set to work to see what they could find.

Time Team excavated three cist burials on Barra, in addition to the four on the site that were investigated as part of the Historic Scotland-funded rescue project the previous year. These represent a number of different burial practices taking place here during the Bronze Age.

One of those excavated by Time Team was a crouched burial of a woman laid on her right-hand side. One appeared to be a small mass grave containing foetuses and young infants. Another had teeth from one burial mixed in with the remains of another individual. And another had cremated remains placed in the grave with bones from an earlier inhumation moved aside to make room in the cist.

 

As well as the Bronze-Age burials on the Allasdale sand dunes, Time Team found the remains of two later Iron-Age roundhouses on the site. One of them had two sheep buried beneath the floor. It is thought that the earlier of the two dates from around 500 BC, and that it was cut into by a later roundhouse dating from around 400 BC.

The Team also investigated a large circular structure, with what appeared to be a possible entrance, nearby. Clearly visible on the geophysics survey and also evident on the ground, it turned out to be the remains of an Iron-Age wheelhouse.

These impressive, relatively uncommon drystone structures (there are only a few known in the whole of the Shetlands) are roughly contemporary with the brochs of northern and western Scotland, in this case around 100 AD. Wheelhouses get their name from their internal piers that protrude from the outer wall, dividing the inner space like the spokes of a wheel. They have a single entrance and a large open space in the centre (25-30 square metres in the case of the one excavated by Time Team), where the internal piers don't meet.

Some wheelhouses have a gap between the dividing piers and the outer wall, for which reason they are sometimes known as 'aisled round houses'. The gap between the piers and the wall were topped by huge lintels, while the gaps between the piers often had corbelled stone roofs. The central space of wheelhouses was too big for a stone roof, so timber would have had to be used. It is also thought that large whalebones, such as the whale rib found by Time Team among the wheelhouse remains on Barra, may have been used in construction..