John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX Tel: 0131-662-1456 Fax: 0131-662-1477/1499 E-mail rcahms.jsh@gtnet.gov.uk
CNOC SLIGEACH, ORONSAY
Type of Site: Midden
NMRS Number: NR38NE 12
Location
Map reference: NR 372 890
Parish: Colonsay And Oronsay
Council: Argyll And Bute
Archaeology Notes
NR38NE 12 3727 8909.
(Area: NR 373 889) Mesolithic midden deposit occurs on both the summit and the eastern flank of Cnoc Sligeach - the Shelly Mound' - and excavations by W Galloway in 1884 on the summit and by Bishop in 1913 have produced a variety of implements of stone and bone as well as shells and the remains of fish, birds and animals.
High up in the deposit Bishop found post-holes which could indicate shelter supports belonging to a period much later than the Obanian to which the implements are usually assigned, although Coles considers them sufficiently divergent to warrant a separate classification.
Scientific study involving small-scale excavation is currently being carried out on the site by Mellars and Payne, because of its importance in preserving evidence of the economic and subsistence activities of human groups in the late pre-agricultural phase.
Galloway's collection of artifacts from the site are the NMAS and Bishop's in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. A large shell and some bones form the Hunterian Collection on being radiocarbon dated produced dates in the 4th to 6th millenium BC.
A H Bishop 1913; A D Lacaille 1954; J M Coles 1964; P Mellars and S Payne 1971; S Grieve 1923; E W Mackie 1970
NR 3728 8909: A large grass-covered sandy mound containing much shell, measuring 38.0m N-S by 26.5m and up to 3.2m high. The excavation trenches have been backfilled. Other shell deposits occur within about a 100.0m radius of the mound.
Surveyed at 1/10 000.
Visited by OS (DWR) 18 April 1974
Collection Summary
Photographs: 2
Drawings: 0
Manuscripts: 0
Other Material: 0
Bibliography
Bishop, A H
(1914 )
'An Oransay shell-mound - A Scottish Pre-Neolithic site',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 48, 1913-14, 52-108
Coles, J M
(1964 a)
'New aspects of the mesolithic settlement of South-West Scotland',
Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 3rd Ser, 41, 1962-3, 67-9
Grieve, S
(1923 )
The book of Colonsay and Oronsay: forty-four years of research and discovery in early Scoto-Irish, Norse and Danish history [...],
2v, Edinburgh, Vol.2, map
Jardine, W G
(1972 )
'Oronsay: shell mounds',
Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1972, 8
Jardine, W G
(1974 )
'Oronsay: shell mound',
Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1974, 13-14
Jardine, W G
(1973 )
'Oronsay, shell middens',
Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1973, 9-10
Jardine and Jardine, W G and D C
(1984 )
'Minor excavations and small finds at three Mesolithic sites, Isle of Oronsay, Argyll',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 113, 1983,
Jardine and Jardine, W G and D C
(1976 )
'Oronsay: shell mounds: prehistoric and early historic settlement',
Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1976, 14
Jardine and Jardine, W G and D C
(1980 )
'A Mesolithic barbed point from Cnoc Sligeach, Isle of Oronsay, Argyll',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 109, 1977-8,
Lacaille, A D
(1954 a)
The Stone Age in Scotland,
London, 218-29
MacKie, E W
(1970 c)
'Oronsay: Cnoc Sligeach',
Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1970, 7
MacKie, E W
(1972 a)
'Radiocarbon dates for two mesolithic shell heaps and a neolithic axe- factory in Scotland',
Proc Prehist Soc, 38, 1972, 412-13
Mellars, P A
(1987 )
Excavations on Oronsay: prehistoric human ecology on a small island,
Edinburgh, 193-211
Mellars and Payne, P A and S
(1971 )
'The excavation of two mesolithic shell middens on the Island of Oronsay (Inner Hebrides)',
Nature {London}, 231, 1971, 397-8
Scott, J G
(1966 b)
South-west Scotland,
London, 13-14
