Pobuill Fhinn

Also known as:
Pobull Fhinn
Nearest town:
Uig (55km ENE)
OS reference:
NF843651
OS sheet:
18
Latitude:
57° 33' 55.49 N
Longitude:
7° 16' 51.17 W

Images

Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by drewbhoy

The lady in the black coat is about to fall over, fortunately she was ok :-)

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Oct 18, 2019
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by drewbhoy

No early morning ‘swifters’ in the hotel, dearie me!

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Oct 18, 2019
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by postman

Burl says they dug earth from the northern half and piled it onto the southern half to make a level platform on which to erect this splendid stone circle, it’s not very level is it.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 4, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by postman

It was a terribly long wait and way to get here, but by gum it was worth it.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 4, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by postman

They don’t sell strimmers in the Outer Hebrides, apparently.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 4, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by postman

The northern circle stones are within the bank and the southern ones here outside it.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 4, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by postman

Early in the morning, looking across the circle with the west end portal stones in the foreground and I think a small mountain called Eaval in the beyond.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 4, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Looking down upon a watery landscape from Ben Langass

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 20, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

An extraordinary location for a stone circle. I’d recommend an approach from Barpa Langass... for the proper effect.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 20, 2016
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

A general view..... but what a view.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 7, 2010
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

The circle stones struggle to cling to the hillside... which only heightens their charm, in my opinion.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 9, 2010
Image of Pobuill Fhinn (Stone Circle) by shacmh

late evening, october, about to rest in pub with lager tops. tallest upright at pobiull fhinn looking quite majestic with its moss and the sun setting behind. now where’s that lager tops?

Image credit: by meeee ([email protected])
S
shacmh Mar 26, 2003

Articles

Pobuill Fhinn

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Dec 27, 2019

The last stop on this trip was Pobuill Fhinn, a place I last visited when playing gigs at Lochmaddy and Lochboisdale many years ago.

Its a beautiful oval shaped site and there’s no need for me to add anything else.

However if looking for Fionns Grave, you’ll struggle as it is well covered in heather which is perhaps a good thing as it can observe the beautiful view looking south undisturbed.

With that, it was back to Lochmaddy to catch a ferry.

Visited 30/7/2019.

Pobuill Fhinn

postman
postman Aug 4, 2016

No lounging around in beer gardens for us, it is a little after 8am so that would be a bit strange, I didn’t have the heart to drag Eric over the hill to it, so we let the dogs drag us the short walk from the hotel through the heather and bracken.
After enjoying a people free Barpa Langass last night I thought it not quite odd but at least fortuitous to have the stones to ourselves, these are famous places right?
I think I worked it out, North Uist is as much water as it is land, there is no Stornoway here, no town as such at all, and there is no Callanish, the place will always live on in my memory as being mostly people free.
I can see stones, we have arrived, the bracken and heather is doing very well on this south facing hillside, too well, the ground is quite boggy. What a place, a few miles south east-ish there is a small mountain which I think is called Eaval, and more on the horizon. The north view is short, it is uphill, that’s where I go next to see it from above, ah, ever had an itch you couldn’t scratch, I have a few, this ones called Pobuill Fhinn, but now I can scratch away, it’s quite a relief to finally get here. No analogies can do this feeling justice, it’s just very good to be here.
The portalled entrances are quite obvious, but why two? Swinside and the Druids circle have just one, so why two here, a small voice inside me says it’s because it’s twice as good, more is always better than less.
It’s an embanked stone circle, nay oval, but oddly the northern circle stones are inside the bank and the southern stones are outside it, explain that one if you can.
Man what a beautiful place, I adore the Outer Hebrides, but it’s time to leave this idyllic place, hunt down some breakfast and then drive through a stone circle, one of only four places that I know of where you can do that.

Pobuill Fhinn

C
CARL Jun 27, 2012

Visited 28.5.12

After enjoying a nice cool drink in the beer garden of Langass Lodge myself and Sophie headed out towards the stone circle while Karen watched Dafydd play on the slide.

It is only a 5 minute walk through the heather which is just as well when carrying a little one!

I counted 15 standing stones and several others hidden in the heather.
The tallest stone is approximately 2 metres tall. Sophie enjoyed playing amongst the stones and heather.

The views from the circle are splendid. The sun was shining out of a clear blue sky, the dark blue waters of the lochs glistened and the rugged beauty of North Uist was there for all to see.

An easy stone circle to access and well worth a visit – particularly on a day like today.

Pobuill Fhinn

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 14, 2009

Pobuill Fhinn....... not the most impressive stone circle you’ll ever see.... if grading by size of orthostats is your thing, but – of course – there’s far, far more to a circle than that.

Pobuill Fhinn has it all in my book – siting, views and that undefinable ‘Je ne sais quoi’. Suffice to say Barpa Langass and this site took up a full nine hours of my day and I simply just couldn’t tear myself away. Number of uprights, alignments? No idea, such was the intoxication here. Guess I’ll just have to go and check what Mr Burl says.

The only regret is that I only got a couple of half-decent photos. Hey-ho.

Pobuill Fhinn

greywether
greywether Sep 12, 2004

Rarely have I spent so long looking at a site before visiting it but this one can be clearly seen from the beer garden of the Langass Lodge where we had lunch.

Aubrey Burl (see Rhiannon’s post) says it “has one of the loveliest settings of any stone circle” and you have to agree. It’s something about it being set into the hill so you can get above it for a full view of the circle and the watery landscape beyond it.

And its design is interesting with its two portal entrances.

Nice one.

There is a waymarked trail starting from the Lodge which takes in this site and Barpa Langass.

Miscellaneous

Pobuill Fhinn
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 8, 2003

The site’s name probably means ‘Finn’s People’ – Finn MacCool that is -though it’s also been translated as the Holy People.
The circle is built on an artificially levelled surface (quite a feat) and has 22 standing stones, the largest about 7ft tall. There are two broad ‘entrances’.

Aubrey Burl gives it a romantic description in his ‘from carnac to callanish’ book:

“..Strangely beautiful.. overlooking a loch and distances of grassy machair with water lilies, marsh marigolds and orchids, overflown by lapwings, thinly whistling dunlins and shrieking oystercatchers..”

Sites within 20km of Pobuill Fhinn

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