EHG4516 - Excavation - Cnoc-a-Bhatagain standing stone, Isle of Eigg

In May and October 2000 field archaeology staff of the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service were invited by the Eigg Trust to conduct a small excavation on the site of a formerly recumbent megalith, now re-erected by the roadside. Throughout the excavation it was always assumed that the megalith was just that — it had once been set as an upright in a socket or pit. With that assumption in mind, the fact that no original socket for the stone was revealed suggested that it had been moved (at least a short distance) from its original site. Wherever that may have been, the most significant discovery of the excavation was that at some point, rather than simply having toppled over, the megalith had been deliberately buried. The neat edge and flat base indicate that the trench was an artificial cut through the bedrock and not the product of the fallen stone subsiding into the ground. The arranged pebbles on the bottom of the trench demonstrate a degree of selection and contemplation in preparing the 'tomb' prior to the stone's interment. <1>