Data structure report of small-scale sampling of a Mesolithic shell midden at Tràigh na Beirigh, Cnip, Lewis, 2011.

The wider research project investigating the Mesolithic of the Western Isles of Scotland (the ‘Outer Hebrides’) undertaken by Durham University has identified the second Mesolithic site in this region: a shell midden at Tràigh na Beirigh, Cnip, Lewis. Due to the international research significance of this site and its imminent destruction by coastal erosion, a full coastal erosion assessment of the site was undertaken in September 2011 by a team from Durham University led by Dr. Mike Church. No archaeological structural features were identified, but initial sample processing has produced a large assemblage of environmental and nonenvironmental remains. It is proposed that the Mesolithic shell midden at Tràigh na Beirigh comprises primarily the food waste and fuel remnants leftover from a few short-term, perhaps seasonal, visits of hunter-gatherers to this locale, and rests upon an in situ old ground surface that overlies sterile wind-blown sand. Future work will involve full excavation of the site and a detailed radiocarbon dating programme