Above: The raging Atlantic storms batter down the coastal defences, and expose the prehistoric settlement.

Below: When the SDD team moved in, this oval house was uncovered. Here we see the middle phase, with the long entrance passage pointing to the top left.

Photo: Niall Sharpies.

rather like the guy ropes and tent pegs to held up a tent).

Monitoring this repair work gave Margaret the opportunity to start phase 3 of her excavations. In the hole nearest to the work we had done 234

at beach level, the contractors revealed large areas of tumbled stones. Following a visit to the site by Sandy Matheson and Roy Maciver (respectively the Convenor and Chief Executive of WIIC), Margaret was permitted to continue excavating in this most interesting area, while the reconstruction of the wall continued along the rest of its length.

Nevertheless, there always seemed to be a deadline, often only a few days away, after which the excavation area would need to be back-filled. But its an ill wind that blows no good, and materials ordered by the contractors failed to arrive, delaying their work, but extending the time available for excavation.

Thus, Margaret was on site for all the short hours of daylight, six days a week, throughout the worst days of winter. Gale force winds blew two days in three, horizontal hail lashed in from the sea and occasionally a freak wave washed over the whole site at high tide. Conditions were far from ideal, but the end justified the means. Finds were more prolific than ever, and our sun-lounge gradually filled with piles of tomato boxes, each labelled with date, metre-square code and stratum. The final count was 174 boxes, collected from Stornoway supermarkets. (We did not eat all the tomatoes!)

The largest bulk of finds consisted of shells and bone fragments, representing food debris. Among the bones were sheep, cattle and deer (also antlers), with smaller amounts of pig and dog bones. An almost complete mouse skeleton was also recovered. Limpets were by far the most common type of shell, with oysters, winkles, mussels and dune snails fairly frequent.

Evidence for the cultivation of crops comes from three saddle querns and several carbonised grains. Hammer-stones and potboilers were quite common and the blade edge of a broken polished stone axe was also found.

Flint is uncommon in north-west Scotland, but when found, perhaps as beach pebbles, its value was recognised. A majority of the several hundred small flint flakes were retouched in some way, including about twenty scrapers.

Although quartz is much more difficult to flake than flint, it is abundant in the Lewisian gneiss. It seems clear that the Dalmore community made their own quartz