Monument record MHG52925 - Site of possible stone circle, Eilean a'Chleirich

Information was passed to the HER by the Archaeology Data Service who received feedback on one of their records (ADS ref. RCAHMS06-4445, NMRS NB90SW 1). It relates to the site of a possible stone circle which is described in the 1952 Readers Union edition of Frank Fraser Darling's book "Island Years", Chapter 3, pages 41 & 42:

"The Scottish naturalist Harvie-Brown paid several visits of a few hours each to Eilean a' Chleirich, and the place fascinated him so much that he wrote some pages about it in his 'Vertebrate Fauna of the North-West Highlands and Skye'. On his first visit he saw what he thought was a stone circle on the west bank of the burn and in the little green flat. He found it had disappeared next time he was there and, imagining it to be of too great interest to be lost, he returned with an excavation party. The stones had evidently sunk into the turf, which had become much more boggy than on his earlier visit. He dug them out and replaced them in circular form on the east side of the burn where the ground is firmer ; they lie there still, and as the sheep graze over them, the stones do not disappear. The hole made by Harvie-Brown's party in excavation became a little wet place with a clump of rushes, much beloved of the snipe. As we lay in our tents thirty years after Harvie-Brown's bit of fun …".

From Fraser's description the "stone circle" seems to have lain beside a tiny burn running from Lochan na a'Airidh (The Loch of the Shieling, as Darling calls it), through a little green flat below the shieling (a building) at the southern end, and onto the stones above West Landing. Lochan na a'Airidh is 50ft below Lochan Dubh Medhonach (Little Black Middle Loch), which is in turn west of & 20ft below Lochan Tuach (the north loch), and in Fraser's words "near to the heart of the island". <1>

<1> Archaeology Data Service, 04/2010, Email to ADS Helpdesk from a website user (Text/Correspondence). SHG24729.