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Finlaggan
Loch was visited by the Channel 4 TV series Time Team in 1994, the only time to my
recollection that they've investigated a standing stone. They did a geophysical survey
around the stone, which indicated the likelyhood of a row of pits. This suggests a stone
row, possibly an avenue or stone circle. There appears to be an alignment with the Paps of
Jura (a pair of mountains on the next island, see photo below). Hopefully Time Team will
go back and excavate it one day.
More details of the stone and its possible alignments in the excellent 
Stones of Wonder by Robert
Pollock
Time Team also excavated a large mound about 30ft high and 500ft in
circumference is situated approximately 100ft SW of Finlaggan farm. They found ''a row of
stones deliberately set into the top of the hill''. These were interpreted as the
collapsed lintel- or roofing-stones of a ''prehistoric chamber or souterrain'' which
measured about 5m by 1.5m and had animal bones (possibly a ritual deposit) at the bottom
of the fill. Investigation subsequent to that reported by the Time Team in 1994 revealed
animal bones, a flint arrowhead of Bronze Age type and an Iron Age bone disc, possibly a
toy, within the ''stone-lined chamber'' on top of the mound. No remains of burials were
identified, but there was a ''Bronze Age cairn'' (measuring 3m across) next to the
chamber.
Loch
Finlaggan is better known as home to the little island, Eilean na Comhairle or the
"council island", that formed the seat of government for MacDonald of Islay,
"The Lord of the Isles", until 1615. The stone is beside the Finlaggan interpretive centre,
which has displays about the excavations on
the island .
Refs: Canmore: 37701, 37691, 37693, cairn 79731
Picture credits: top; Clive Ruggles. middle, bottom; � Copyright 1999 Martin Junius
Access: Three kilometres south-west of Port Askaig is the turn off to the west for Finlaggan (watch for the sign). Follow the road and track for just over 1km. The standing stone is by the roadside.
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STILE by Clive Ruggles 
The Stone
Circle Shop
