Bornais

Bornais
Bornais

 Bornais shown within the Outer Hebrides
Language Scottish Gaelic
English
OS grid reference NF7329
Council area Na h-Eileanan Siar
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Police Northern
Fire Highlands and Islands
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Scottish Parliament Western Isles
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Bornais is a village on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Excavations of a Norse settlement nearby have provided important information about lifestyles during this period. It suggests that pigs were a more important aspect of Viking farming than prior to that time, that red deer numbers may have been "controlled" rather than the species simply being subject to hunting, that herring fishing became an important commercial consideration and that trade with centres to the south such as Dublin and Bristol may have been important. Coins found at Bornais and nearby Cille Pheadair were produced in Norway, Westphalia, and England, although there were none from Scotland.[1] Ivory from Greenland was also found there.[2]

It is known that Hebrides were taxed using the Ounceland system and evidence from Bornais suggests that settlers there may have been more prosperous than families of a similar status in the Northern Isles, possibly due to a more relaxed political regime.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ Sharples and Smith (2007) pp. 113-14, 119
  2. ^ Sharples and Smith (2007) p. 120
  3. ^ Sharples and Smith (2007) p. 104, 109, 124

References