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	Scottish
Fire	Scottish
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.

The construction of nearby Dun Vulan broch has been dated to the period 150-50 BC. Located on the coast, it was originally 10 metres (33 ft) in height, but is now reduced to walls of 1.52 metres (5.0 ft). A Pictish house was later built within the walls.^[1]

Dun Vulan broch

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.^[2] Ivory from Greenland was also found there.^[3]

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.^[4]

Notes

References

• Sharples, Niall and Smith, Rachel "Norse settlement in the Western Isles" in Woolf, Alex (ed.) (2007) Scandinavian Scotland - Twenty Years After. St Andrews. St Andrews University Press. ISBN 978-0-9512573-7-1