Loyalty, 'localness' and local identity in the archaeological record, with reference to work in the Isle of Lewis

The published work included with this thesis explores the evidence for the existence of local identity and loyalty to place in the past, and how it can be recognised in the archaeological record. Two of the publications submitted involve the meticulous excavations undertaken on Dùn Èistean, a late medieval clan stronghold situated in Ness, Isle of Lewis (Barrowman 2015a; 2019), the third is the publication of a survey of the chapel-sites of Lewis (Barrowman 2020). The lack of modern excavations of medieval sites in Lewis until recently has meant that research into the development of vernacular architecture in Lewis had been particularly limited. Similarly, the dearth of primary historical sources for Lewis prior to the 17th century has meant that the study of chapel-sites and church organisation in Lewis relies almost totally on archaeological work, of which there had been very little. The published work included in this thesis has therefore been transformative in identifying building features, techniques, and processes that had not previously been identified on a high-status late medieval site such as Dùn Èistean, or on ecclesiastical sites, which were fundamentally linked to the contemporary landscapes of power in which the clan strongholds like Dùn Èistean were situated (see Barrowman, C S 2015, 246–50; Stiùbhart 2015; Barrowman 2020, 121). The Dùn Èistean excavations have also brought new vigour and perspectives to the study of local identity and culture during the medieval period. The layout of Dùn Èistean apes that of medieval castles seen elsewhere in the Western Isles, with a small keep or tower, ancillary buildings, and a defensive enclosure wall. However, the excavations identified that each constituent feature on the site was built in the local vernacular style, using local building methods and resources such as turf roofing, clay-bonded stonework, and solid earthen walls rather than imported materials and techniques. It could be argued that Dùn Èistean was cut off and remote, its occupants lacking the contacts, influence, and resources of their mainland counterparts. This argument keys into traditional antiquarian views of Lewis as an inherently inaccessible, cultural backwater (Barrowman 2019, 38). However, Dùn Èistean was in fact situated at the crux of the maritime trade and fishing routes that were operating in the late medieval period around Ireland and the west coast, across the north of Scotland and across northern Europe. The analysis of the results of the excavations has established that the site was fully engaged in the contemporary world of widespread contacts and influence (Barrowman 2019). It was also entangled in the conflicts abounding at a time of political chaos in Lewis, when the struggles between the Scottish Crown and the clans of the Hebrides, and in the infighting amongst the clans themselves, were particularly tumultuous (see MacCoinnich 2008; 2015a). Many of the buildings on the site were shown to have been in a constant state of re-building and adaption, probably occupied on a seasonal basis as a refuge as and when needed, and lead projectiles and gunflints were both used and made on the site. The fact that a strong local culture prevailed within this sphere of outside influences and politics, suggests that a degree of cultural autonomy existed in the Ness district at this time and confirms that a strong local identity can co-exist with engagement in the wider world (Barrowman 2015b). When the results of the Dùn Èistean excavations and the Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey are combined, it shows that the landscapes of belief and clanship were inextricably linked and evolving and were fundamentally grounded in the local culture and identity. An almost total lack of primary historical documents relating to the church in Lewis in the medieval period, coupled with very little archaeological research undertaken on the chapel-sites, has meant that our knowledge has been particularly limited. However, with the completion of the Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey and the Dùn Èistean excavations together, it is becoming possible to identify hints of local culture and organisation, in the form of shared building methods between secular and ecclesiastical sites. The re-building and re-working of chapel buildings in a similar way to those on Dùn Èistean is also seen, with chapel buildings being repurposed and re-used when cultural beliefs and religious organisation shifted. When attempting to understand and study local identity, I have been privileged to be able to live and work in the landscape I am studying (Illus 1), to really live in and experience it, and the culture that has grown out of it, something that is not always available to the academic. Through my own personal experience of life in Lewis over the last twenty years, I have realised that in the past, as well as the present, the island was governed not by a sense of remoteness or an 'otherness', but by a strong local identity that came out of a shared culture, birthed from the land, and from shared practice, traditions, and language which is only now beginning to be eroded due to the decline of crofting in the area, and increasing globalization.