The Udal

A Bone comb of the Viking age

Iain Crawford read first history and then archaeology at Cambridge in the 1950s. When he was appointed to the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, he resolved to study the Western Isles. He started by reading Celtic, assessing the documents and place-names, and using this background to carry out field survey for settlement survivals.

The recorded history of North Uist begins in 1469 when James II of Scotland gave a charter to the MacDonalds of Sleat granting them possession of North Uist, from which the Udal can be identified.

The Udal was abandoned following the sandblows of the 1690s, but when the sand was removed, the village abandoned in 1690’s that was revealed. A coin of Charles II, a turner or twopence issued in 1663-8 marks the end of the habitation.

The Udal was a more important village than most, for it was a tacksman’s township, the township where the tacksman lived. The tacksman was the squire of the social structure in the Western Isles in the Middle Ages: he was the person who collected the rents, typically controlling around 10 townships and himself paying an often nominal rent to the chief, the ultimate owner.

Medieval longhouse excavated in 1966, at the beginning of the excavation

Note the central baulk, and the opposed doorways.

Vikings

Perhaps the biggest disruption in the Western Isles was the advent of the Vikings. But what remained of them and what trace did they leave in the archaeological record?

The most remarkable discovery was what appeared to be a Viking fort. At the North-Eastern end of the site there was a higher portion known to the excavators as the Mount. There is no building inside in the Viking enclosure, but it appears to have been the first thing built by the Vikings when they arrived.

The Viking buildings outside the fort were mainly constructed of turf. This is a technique brought from home, but it is entirely unsuitable for the machair as it degrades very rapidly to a very distinctive colour, a purple mauve, and whenever the team found this colour, they knew they were in the Viking levels.

Excavating the Viking settlement The Mount has been entirely removed, leaving only the surrounding footings.

The Gaels

Beneath the Vikings was a settlement of ‘Jelly baby houses’. This at any rate is how archaeologists have been chatting about them, though the official form appears to be ‘figure of eight’ or ‘ventral’ houses. The outline is just like jelly baby sweeties, that is an oval body with a head at the top, and a wide splayed entrance looking just like jelly baby legs. This is a very pop image of what was a dramatically new style of architecture when first discovered near Buckquoy in Orkney slightly earlier.

It consists of an oval shaped house, a prominent wide entrance, a small head on the opposite side, a rectangular central hearth, and two platforms - possibly beds - on either side. The floor was a black mass of organic material and peat ash, but the platforms were cleaner, suggesting that they had been covered, perhaps for beds. The type runs through from AD 300/400 down to the coming of the Vikings in around AD 800. Five houses in all were located, stratified below the Viking settlement.

A 'Jellybaby' or figure-of-eight house. The inner room forming the head is in the foreground, possibly a sleeping area.

On to the South tell

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