A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site dating to
the 7th millennium BC at An Corran in Staffin is one of the oldest
archaeological sites in Scotland. Its occupation is probably linked to that of
the rock shelter at Sand, Applecross, on the mainland coast of Wester Ross
where tools made of a mudstone from An Corran have been found. Surveys of the
area between the two shores of the Inner Sound and Sound of Raasay have
revealed 33 sites with potentially Mesolithic deposits. Finds of bloodstone
microliths on the foreshore at Orbost on the west coast of the island near
Dunvegan also suggest Mesolithic
