Scheduled Monument
Bosta, settlement N & NW of cemetery, Great BerneraSM7335
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 23/01/1998
- Last Date Amended
- 20/01/1999
- Type
- Prehistoric domestic and defensive: other midden deposits; settlement (if not assigned to any more specific type)
- Local Authority
- Na h-Eileanan Siar
- Parish
- Uig
- NGR
- NB 13744 40139
- Coordinates
- 113744, 940139
Description
The monument comprises the remains of a settlement of later Iron Age date. This was scheduled only recently, but changes to the shoreline and the need to create an access to the shore necessitate an adjustment to the protected area.
The settlement at Bosta has been partly excavated and is now protected behind a coastal defence system. Its surface is also protected, and has the upper levels of two houses visible, together with the plan layout of a third. Long known from surface and coast-edge finds and observations of masonry structures, Bosta was partly excavated in 1995.
The sequence proved to be a thin residual series of Norse-medieval deposits overlying a much deeper series of later Iron Age deposits, with good structural preservation of a series of oval houses which appear to have developed into multi-cellular forms late in their history. Provisional dates based on pottery would appear to place the Iron Age settlement in the period AD 300-500.
Three houses were excavated and at least one more identified but not excavated. Of the three houses excavated, two were dug to floor level and one was dug to destruction. Extensive deposits still survive in situ.
The revised area now to be scheduled consists of the known and suspected extent of archaeological deposits plus the new retaining structure to seaward. It consists of an irregular strip bounded to the seaward by the back of the flat beach (to include the recently-constructed coast defences) and to the landward partly by the recent cemetery wall (which is itself excluded from scheduling).
It excludes an area of land on the north and east, formerly scheduled, and includes an area on the south, formerly omitted. The area to be scheduled measures a maximum of 80m WSW-ENE by 135m NNW-SSE, and is shown in red on the accompanying map extract.
Statement of National Importance
The monument is of national importance as a fine example of a later Iron Age settlement with proven structural remains of high quality and with deposits capable of providing much information about later prehistoric domestic economy, settlement organisation and architecture.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.
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