A’ Charragh Bhiorach at Balinoe
Photograph of the standing stone at Balinoe in 2000.
Numerous remains from the Bronze Age (2500 – 600 BC) have been found on Tiree and it is probable that the people who left them were the first to occupy the island in any numbers. These early farmers were using metal for the first time and making pottery with turned out rims known as ‘Beakers’.
New religious customs appeared. The dead were buried sitting upright in cists or cremated and the ashes put in funerary urns. Hollowed out cup markings were fashioned on significant rocks and standing stones and stone circles were erected.
The standing stone at Balinoe, 3.6 metres high with a base 1.9 metres by 1.1 metres, is known locally as A’ Charragh Bhiorach (the pointed stone). It must be remembered that this is not the original name as Gaelic came to be spoken here 3,000 years after it was erected.
Colour photograph of A` Charragh Bhiorach at Balinoe in 2000.
Standing stone at Balinoe known as A’ Charragh Bhiorach, the sharp pillar, or Spitheag an Fhoimheir, chip of the giant, photographed by Dr John Holliday in 2000.
Colour photograph of a standing stone at Hough in 2000.
Standing stone at Hough photographed by Dr John Holliday in 2000.
Photocopied leaflet about the excavation of the broch at Vaul.
Leaflet giving information about early settlements on the site, the construction, use and later demolition of the broch and the material recovered.
Photocopied journal extract about prehistoric pottery in the Western Isles by Patrick G. Topping.
A re-examination of the major pottery sites in the Western Isles including the broch at Vaul and the `hut` site at Balevullin.
Photocopied journal extract about an Iron Age site at Balevullin by Euan W. MacKie.
Description of the `hut site` at Balevullin excavated by A. Henderson Bishop in 1912 and the collections of pottery from Tiree in the Hunterian Museum and Glasgow Museum followed by a discussion of the site and material placing both in their cultural context.
Paperback book `Towers in the North` by Ian Armit.
The current state of knowledge about brochs, the controversies over their origins and functions and an annotated list of the most accessible and well-preserved broch sites.
Black and white photograph of a group of people at the Ringing Stone in 1924.
The Ringing Stone, from a small photograph album from Silversands in Vaul titled 1924.
Black and white photograph of an unknown woman sitting on the Ringing Stone in 1930.
The Ringing Stone from a small photograph album from Silversands in Vaul titled `September 1930`.
The souterrain in Kilkenneth in 1918
Photograph of John MacIntyre and his son Colin at the opened souterrain in Kilkenneth in 1918.
Courtesy of Mr Colin MacKinnon
John MacIntyre (Iain Chailein Mhurchaidh) and his son, Colin, are pictured here at the souterrain in Kilkenneth opened by chance when ploughing in 1918. It was later covered over.
Less than a mile away, a Y-shaped passage was exposed in the 1890s in the sand dunes at Tràigh Ghrianail. Measuring 9.2 metres long, 1 metre wide and 1.5 metres high, it was known locally as An Taigh Falaichte (the hidden house) and used for shelter by those working on the shore. It has since disappeared.
Similar underground structures were built on the mainland around 200 AD. They may have been used as byres or stores, or as places to hide from raiders.
Black and white photograph of John MacIntyre at the souterrain in Kilkenneth around 1920.
John MacIntyre at the rear of the horse and his son Colin at the opened souterrain in Kilkenneth around 1920.
Paperback book `Rhum: Mesolithic and later sites at Kinloch excavations 1984-86` by C. R. Wickham-Jones.
Account of the Mesolithic and later finds at Kinloch on Rhum.
De-accessioned 21.3.2026.
