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between the upper layer of loam and the lower layer of sea-sand. The pottery consisted
of:
one piece of the bottom, with part of the side, of a small vessel of reddish clay, not
made on the wheel or fired in a kiln, and unglazed; three portions apparently of the
sides of different vessels of dark micaceous clay, about ¼ inch in thickness, somewhat
resemblingtheoldcraggans,andornamentedwithroughparallelscratches,asifdrawn
with the broken end of a twig; and a fourth fragment, showing the lip of a larger ves-
sel, elegantly shaped, well smoothed on the inside, and the outside ornamented with
the same linear striation. The loam at both ends of the layer was impregnated with a
reddish material, resembling damp peat-ashes. 22
Dr Mackenzie went on to describe the details of part of the structure - a passage, 21in
wide,whichledduewestfromthekirk(actuallydescribedasthe'so-calledKirk')fora
distance of 6½ft. Its walls, which were 2ft high, were dry-built and plumb. There were
two interruptions in the wall, one on the south side, where it should have abutted on
the west end of the chapel, and the other on the opposite side. The former, which had
a width of 27in, appears to have been the doorway of the structure. The niche on the
north side was semi-circular in shape; it was 41in wide and had an extreme depth of
30in. The floor of carefully laid flat stones was about 9in above the general level of the
passage floor. The roof of this recess appeared to have been semi-circular in shape. At
the western end, the passage opened into a roofless circular apartment which was about
10ftindiameter.Itswallswereverywellbuiltofdrystone,whichrosefromthefounda-
tionstoaheightofabout4ft.Atthewestofthechamber,peatashwasfound,andunder
the floor some more of the small bones. In the wall of this chamber was a small square
recess 17in high, 15in broad, and 19in deep. The interior of the entire structure (which
comprised the circular chamber, the passage, and the kirk) measured 24ft 9in. There
wasaslopeonthefloorfromthewesterntotheeasternend,thegradientestimatedtobe
around 1 in 50. One feature of the circular apartment and the passage was the drainage
system, which was still present at the time Dr MacKenzie made his excavations at the
chapel. A carefully built drain made up of flat stones laid in a 'V' shape entered under
the foundations. From this point, the drainage ran in front of the fireplace in the circu-
lar chamber where the ashes were found, and curved under the full width of the floor
throughthepassage.Oppositethenicheinthepassage,itwasjoinedbyanotherdrainof
thesameconstruction,whichemergedfromtheflooroftheniche.Fromthisjunction,it
passedtotheoutsidethroughthedoorway,notapparently havingentered thekirkatall.
The contents of the drain, a dark-coloured deposit, were freely dotted with a pure white
substance resembling chloride of lime.
 
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