Imagine an ancient time at Rubh’ an Dùnain around 3000 years ago.
A small procession winds its way towards a stone cairn overlooking Loch Brittle to the north, and behind them to the south, their own little settlement of stone and turf.
They circle the lochan and make their way up a sacred path, leaving the shelter of the natural dip in the terrain to face the chilling wind that blows across the ridge and the entrance to the House of the Dead.
The bier that carries the dead body is lowered at the doorway of the burial chamber and bowls of offerings are placed on the ground. Then the ritual begins, ending with shifting the body and bowls inside the chambered cairn to lie beside the human bones of those who have gone before.
Such an event is part of the story of Rubh’ an Dùnain. The House of the Dead – a chambered cairn known as a Barpa in Gaelic – remains in ruins to bear testimony to such ancient rituals.
Archaeologists say the chamber is one of many on the Atlantic coastline from Spain to the Shetlands with some evidence that those who lived in this hidden headland were not only fishermen, but farmers too.
Skye’s Hidden Heritage