Archaeology

Introduction: The Workers' Educational Association's Isle of Coll school was held last May; thirty-seven people attended, split into three groups, each spending two days on the island. The party was made up of people from all over Argyll and Bute with shared interests in archaeology, natural history, geology and history who regularly attend WEA evening classes. The WEA - Workers' Educational Association - is a nationwide adult education body, now 90 years old, which organises adult education courses and summer schools in a variety of subjects. Excellent accommodation was provided at Tigh na Mara where Ruth and Robert Sturgeon coped admirably with our 'shift system' and we were sorry to leave after their splendid hospitality and friendship. Our areas of study required three tutors: Julian Hill, geology; Norman Newton, archaeology; George MacLennon, history and place names. Two 'locals' gave excellent talks - Sue Anderson on birds of Coll and Betty MacDougall on the island's history and people. Our appreciation also extends to Biddy Russell without whose constant encouragement the Coll school would not have come about.

Julian Hill


The easily accessible Bronze Age cairn of Cnoc a'Bhadain can be seen on the west side of the main road, just before the first cattle grid north of Arinagour, on a rocky ridge overlooking the head of Loch Eatharna. The remains of two cists or stone burial chambers can be seen. It is a typical Bronze Age round cairn, dating perhaps from 1700-1400BC. Ten of the original kerb stones survive.

Other examples of Bronze Age sites visited were the cists in the sand dunes 300 yards west of Killunaig burial ground, and the Standing Stones at Totronald, known in Gaelic as Na Sgeulachan - 'The StoryTellers'. Johnson and Boswell visited the stones in 1773 and were amused at the idea that they had been thrown into place by a giant. A more recent theory is that they were used to track the movements of the sun and moon.

At the Arnabost crossroads, a sou terrain or 'earth-house' was discovered around 1855, during road-building operations. Due to subsidence in 1986 it was possible for the WEA group to explore the remains of what was in all probability a storage place used in the Iron Age. It was excavated in 1896 by the island's Postmaster, Robert Sturgeon, whose grandson had the exciting experience of crawling into a passageway covered over and blocked off for 90 years. This site is in a dangerous state and should not be investigated without proper equipment.

We visited two of Coll's fortified Iron Age sites, the fort of Dun Morbhaidh and Dun an Achaidh. Dun Morbhaidh is near the shore to the north-west of Cornaigbeg Farm. The WEA visitors coped nobly with the rugged approaches, scrambling nimbly to the summit area, where only the scant remains of the fort wall can be seen.

Dun an Achaidh lies south-west of Acha Mill, and is easily approached from the main road. This proved to be the most exciting site which the group visited, as almost everybody managed to find at least one small sherd of Iron Age pottery in the debris on the south-east slope. Admittedly, most of the pieces were tiny and very abraded. This is the best-preserved of the four duns on Coll, and sits on the crest of a quartzite ridge, so the stones used in building the dun wall are easily distinguished. The wall enclosing the summit of the ridge is over 8ft thick and survives to a height of over 3ft in places, but from the amount of debris must have been considerably higher at one time, probably 12-15ft tall.

Despite occasionally hostile meteorological conditions, we were able to visit a representative sample of Coll's archaeological sites. The visitor with more time, better weather and boundless energy will find more sites marked on the two 1:25000 Ordnance Survey maps covering Coll. Needless to say, no digging, however minor, should ever be carried on without permission, and any surface discoveries should be kept in their original condition, (i.e. not cleaned) and brought to the attention of the authorities.

Norman S. Newton