The Lost Graves of Àird Allathasdail

Tràigh Hamara: a sweep of pale sand where today the Atlantic was rolling in quietly, one more perfect beach among many on Barra.

But our attention was not on the beach. It was drawn to the headland opposite. Not the distant one, but the nearer stretch of low dunes and machair: Àird Allathasdail.

In 2005, storms tore into the headland and pulled back the dunes, exposing four Bronze Age burials in a collapsing hollow. Emergency excavations followed¹Cist(S) (Early Bronze Age), Inhumation (Early Bronze Age), Stone Setting(S) (Early Bronze Age)(Possible). Barra, Allasdale. Canmore ID 293929. http://canmore.org.uk/site/293929. A year later, Time Team arrived to find the site still vanishing²Allasdale Dunes, Barra | Our Work | Wessex Archaeology. https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/allasdale-dunes-barra. Their brief dig revealed another burial, a Bronze Age house, and a large Iron Age roundhouse.

We wandered over the headland ourselves, hoping to spot something—anything—that marked the site. But no. A few mounds that might have been something. Or nothing. In the end, nothing.

The dead at Allathasdail were buried close together, likely family. Their graves were marked out with upright stones. They lay on their sides, knees drawn up. Silent, crouched, as if still waiting.

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  Cist(S) (Early Bronze Age), Inhumation (Early Bronze Age), Stone Setting(S) (Early Bronze Age)(Possible). Barra, Allasdale. Canmore ID 293929. http://canmore.org.uk/site/293929
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  Allasdale Dunes, Barra | Our Work | Wessex Archaeology. https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/allasdale-dunes-barra