Small-scale sampling at Tràigh an Teampuill (Temple Bay), Toe Head Peninsula, Northton, Harris, 2012; data structure report.

The third Mesolithic site in the Western Isles of Scotland at Tràigh an Teampuill (Temple Bay), Toe Head peninsula, Harris (NGR NF9734 9132) was identified in 2011 as part of a wider research project into the Mesolithic of this region, led by Mike Church and a team from Durham University. The preliminary investigation indicated this site had excellent preservation and the team returned to conduct further sampling and assessment of the site in 2012, in advance of on-going coastal erosion (Blake et al. 2012a:6; Church et al. 2011a). The deposits consist of several buried ground surfaces mixed with anthropogenic midden material, which probably form part of the early to mid-Holocene buried landscape identified through coring in 2001 and during the excavation of Northton in 2010 (Bishop et al. 2010; 2011a; 2011b; Gregory et al. 2005; Simpson et al. 2006). A scoop was cut through the buried ground surface deposits and was subsequently filled with shell-rich midden deposits and an ash spread. Charred hazel nutshell fragments recovered from the site have been dated to c. 5700-5400 cal. BC