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The Western Isles

<b>The Western Isles</b>Posted by KammerCnoc Ceann a'Gharraidh © Simon Marshall
Also known as:
  • Na h-Eileanan Siar
  • Outer Hebrides

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Sites/Groups in this region:

31 sites
Barra and Vatersay
11 posts
92 sites
Lewis and Harris
5 sites
Mingulay Island
6 posts
12 sites
St. Kilda

Folklore

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In his book ‘Behold the Hebrides’, Alastair Alpin MacGregor (1925) explains how the people of the Hebrides are surrounded by the sea and it though the sea is part of them and they are part of the sea. He says it was known as well as though it were a member of their own family and that to them the sea spoke in Gaelic. He says they listened to what it said and from this they prophesied good and bad fortune, at home and abroad, and how by its sounds and moods they could tell what weather was coming. There was the ‘laughing of the waves’ – ‘gair nann tonn / gair na mara’ and sometimes this laughter would be mocking and derisive when a storm had risked life and feeble humans had struggled to survive it. He also describes the laughing of waves across a great stretch of sand on Lewis in calm and frosty weather as being “weird and eerie”.
In the Hebrides there are many descriptions of the sounds and moods of the sea. Here are a few of them.
Nualan na mara – sounds like the lowing of cattle
Buaireas na mara – restless sea
Gearan na mara – complaining or fretting sea
Mire na mara – joy and cheerfulness of sea
Osnadh – sighing of sea, like the breeze through pine and larch at nightfall
Caoidh na mara – lament of the sea.

He says that sometimes the sea is totally still and silent as though it sleeps, and the people nearby are lulled into sleep also; and he says that people who live by the sea derive their vision from it.

Martin Martin, writing of the Western Isles in 1695 says of the inhabitants of one of the small, then inhabited, islands round Lewis, that they took their surname from the colour of the sky, the rainbow and the clouds.

Source: ‘Mother of the Isles’ by Jill Smith
tjj Posted by tjj
22nd July 2013ce
Edited 22nd July 2013ce

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The Hebridean Iron Age: Twenty Years' Research


By D.W. Harding:

This paper reviews progress in Atlantic Scottish Iron Age studies over the past twenty years, with particular reference to a long-term programme of fieldwork in west Lewis undertaken by the University of Edinburgh. It deprecates the survival and revival of older conventional models for defining and dating the major field monuments of the period and region in the face of accumulating evidence for the origins of Atlantic roundhouses in the mid-first millennium BC, and discusses important new evidence for the first-millennium AD sequence of occupation and material culture. The material assemblages of the Hebridean Iron Age are contrasted with the impoverished and relatively aceramic material culture of lowland Scotland and northern England, and the importance of the western seaways in later prehistoric and early historic times as a distinctive cultural region is emphasised.
Hob Posted by Hob
19th September 2005ce
Edited 30th August 2007ce

Latest posts for the Western Isles

Showing 1-10 of 2,766 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Callanish (Standing Stones) — Links

Drone footage by Scott Davies


Found this while surfing online - as you do. Talented man with very little recognition. Always the way, right?
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
2nd March 2024ce

Sig More (Chambered Cairn) — Fieldnotes

Follow the same directions as Mark, and stop at the same place. The way over to the cairn was kinder to me, there was hardly any seaweed and in any case I'd had my troubles for the earlier at Ardnamonie.

Unlike the previous two sites I could get to this one and there is quite a lot to see. At 20m wide, damage by both humans and erosion has led to stones falling all around the site 13 in total, some of which might be capstones. Thanks to robbing the chamber can be seen and thanks to the robbing its difficult to tell if there are three areas / compartments. Two can be certainly seen, of the third only two stones remain standing.

One of the nicest 'what ifs' I've seen.

A great way to finish the trip.

Visited 13/08/2023
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Dun Buidhe (Broch) — Fieldnotes

Slightly to the east Ardnamonie is the much more recognisable broch Dun Buidhe. I walked along the fence line until I reached the site, the ground looked drier so I jumped the fence, walked 8 or 9 paces to end up almost waist deep in the bog.

Sadly it appears that, on drier days, it looks like the site is used as a rubbish tip. Also later buildings have been attached to site, as at Ardnamonie. Even from where I stood or sank, you could see the circular shape of a broch despite being covered vegetation.

Luckily no washer-woman was washing or drying any shrouds on my visit, so all would be fine.

Worth a (re) visit when much, much drier conditions.

Visited 11/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Dun Buidhe (Broch) — Links

Canmore


Superb aerial photography, and some hardy soul managed to get onto the site.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Ardnamonie (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes

From Loch an Daill we headed south on the A865 and took the first road heading west.

Similar to Loch an Daill Mary provided a parking space, or rather her shrine did, at the end of the road, or just before it headed south. From the shine I jumped the gate and headed south east, the site is easily spotted.

It has been a trip in which water levels have featured quite a bit, and this is a massive example of dropping water levels. What used to be loch has vanished and changed into a large marsh, perhaps you can get in from the south but looking at aerial photos on Canmore I'd suggest not trying.

However, I got as close as I could, before deciding it was unsafe.

What remains is a bit of a shambles, it appears to have been used for several functions, the outlines of buildings can be seen. It probably has been a cairn or a dun or a broch. Stones could easily have been recycled but as Canmore suggests a proper excavation is needed.

A bit of a what-if.

Visited 11/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Loch An Daill (Promontory Fort) — Fieldnotes

Not much to see here, look for the promontory on the north east side of the shrine beside the telegraph poles.

There is a wall amongst the tall vegetation which I found very easily by tripping over it. Further towards the shore there is the remains of another small wall before you are in the fort proper.

Worth looking at it, if looking for the dun.

Visited 11/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Loch An Daill (Stone Fort / Dun) — Fieldnotes

If there was a causeway here, reportedly seen in 1915 but well submerged - by 2003 it had vanished. By the time of my arrival with reports of water levels being quite a bit lower it would be safe to say it might never be found.

The actual dun is still there clearly visible by looking east from the shrine at Ardmore, if heading north from Daliburgh (South Uist) its just before the causeway to Benbecula, if heading south from Benbecula park at the first shrine.

Not much remains on the 'high crannog' except the usual fallen stones and what appears to some kind of standing stone.

Beinn Tairbeirt and Beinn A' Phortair provide dramatic backdrops to the south east.

Visited 11/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Tigh Cloiche (South Uist) (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes

The cairn at Tigh Cloiche has seen a lot of damage done to it throughout the centuries. It still stands, grass covered, at 12m wide by 1m high. Stones can be seen in the middle, first thoughts, to me, it might be remains of a cist but more likely a small shelter of some kind. The site is surrounded in fairly marshy ground. It seems Canmore can't make their minds up also, they didn't declare if it was Neolithic or Bronze Age, perhaps it might even be an Iron Age Wheelhouse. I'd go for a robbed Bronze Age Round Cairn, an excavation would be interesting.

To the north of the cairn there is a minor road heading east, there is plenty pull over space a short distance from the A865. Not wishing to walk down the busy road I headed cross country, straight south via some marsh and the occasional dry bit.

A but of a what if, but worth a visit to speculate.

Visited 11/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
5th January 2024ce

Dun Altabrug (Stone Fort / Dun) — Fieldnotes

We returned to West Loch Ollay from the standing stone at Crois Chnoca Breaca and took the car to Dun Altabrug.

Take the road that swings north, the road we came, and at the junction head west. Keep going, past a minor road, and as the road swings north east take the first minor road south, stopping at the road's end. We were given permission to park by the occupant at Peninerine.

Head south east up and over a wee hill and the dun will be clearly seen along with the causeway, the causeway being just over 30m in length.

Decent walls still exist on the 'high crannog' / dun with the entrance on the east. Most of the site is overgrown. The circular wall is over 1.2m, the island is slightly oval and measures 9.5m by 8m.

Once again it was explained that water levels are low here also, as they are over North and South Uist and Benbecula. The photos proved that when compared with photos taken from 5 years ago, vegetation had grown, the causeway is much more visible and the land from the farmhouse a lot les boggy.

Superb site.

Visited 10/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
4th January 2024ce

Crois Chnoca Breaca (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes

A weird and wonderful stone which could easily be mistaken as a ruined Celtic Cross. Parking is easy as there is a car park at the Ardmichael Cemetery but we headed towards the coast, from West Loch Ollay, to follow the Hebridean Way which gave us a easy walk heading north, and more importantly it led straight to the site.

It stands on a wee mound at just over 2m tall, almost giving a middle finger to time and, perhaps, modernisation. Hopefully a gentle straighten up will save this stone falling as it sits at an precarious angle.

Fantastic site / sight with fantastic scenery.

Visited 10/08/2023.
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
4th January 2024ce
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