Megalith enthusiast who did much to further understanding of the Calanais stone circle and other ancient sites of the Isle of Lewis
Mike Pitts
When Julian Cope, the musician and antiquary, met Margaret Curtis on the Isle of Lewis in the 1990s, he was impressed. Curtis, who has died aged 80, was a “living legend” and a “psychic queen”, said Cope, who filled him with “a real sense of awe”. He devoted a chapter in his bestselling 1998 book The Modern Antiquarian to her and to Calanais, one of the most extraordinary ancient monuments in Europe.
Near the Atlantic coast in the remote Outer Hebrides, Calanais (pronounced as in the anglicised spelling, Callanish) is a stone circle at the centre of five rows dating from around 3000BC. The tallest of nearly 50 megaliths is over five metres high, and all are made of a distinctive streaked gneiss that glows against stormy skies. Curtis did much to further understanding of this and other overlooked sites on Lewis, becoming the island’s unofficial archaeologist and sharing her enthusiasms with an appreciative visiting public.
She found many more stones under the peat as she walked the moorland, probing with a metal bar. One, at Calanais itself, was re-erected in 1982, and she spotted the broken tip of another in a wall.
Archaeologists sometimes followed up her suggestions. Patrick Ashmore, who led excavations at Calanais for what is now Historic Scotland in the 1980s, praised the fieldwork and record-keeping of Curtis and each of her two husbands. On one occasion, quartz pieces she found when a road near her house was straightened led to the discovery of a bronze age burial cairn.
More: theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/07/margaret-curtis-obituary
Thank you for posting this, I was hoping someone would. I didn't notice straight away that the two photos used were taken by Steve Marshall who wrote and photographed 'Exploring Avebury - The Essential Guide'. He and his now wife Kim had spent time with her in 2011/2012 as did other past contributers to TMA in earlier years (I was fortunate to meet her myself in 2013). Not mentioned in the obituary - she had a large collection of cats, over 30 at the time of her death. They were being fed by neighbours and have given animal charities on Lewis a big challenge in taking care of them.
I'd heard about her passing elsewhere when it happened and was surprised that no-one else had posted something about it here. Hope the cats get looked after.
There is a short, very moving video on Youtube on Margaret Curtis put on by Peter Vallance.
Margaret Curtis at Calanais, in memorium. 30th March 2022
youtube.com/watch?v=fDJYdCNLDAU
Thanks for this Moss, just watched. Have to say Margaret looked very frail, fascinating to hear her talk so much about Great Bernera as that is where I stayed (with friend) while visiting Lewis in 2013. Recall the standing stone by the bridge very well. Would love to see her life's work, theories and observations drawn together in a book dedicated to her memory.
Well maybe that will happen sometime tjj. I shall never get to Callanish but have a lot of beautiful photos going through on my F/B site of the complex.