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Field Visit
Date 28 July 1921
Event ID 1102828
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1102828
Luchruban, Pigmies' Isle, Butt of Lewis.
On the sea-coast barely 1 mile west-southwest of the Butt of Lewis is a precipitous grass-covered rock rising some 60 or 70 feet above the sea, and isolated by a deep cleft from the mainland. It is known as Luchruban, or the Pigmies' Isle. The ascent is dangerous, though it can be made even at high water. At the south-eastern corner of the summit, which measures about 80 feet by 70 feet, is a peculiar construction which has been partly built underground, the interior showing good drystone masonry, but heaped up outside.
The building, which lies north-east and southwest, comprises an almost circular chamber of about 10 feet diameter at the south-western end, connected by a passage 9 feet long and 2 feet wide to a rectangular chamber 8 feet long and 5 ½ feet wide. At approximately right angles to the southern side of this passage, and 2 ½ feet from the rectangular chamber, is the inner opening, 2 feet 2 inches wide, of what seems to be an entrance way about 11 feet long. Opposite this on the other side is a recess 3 ½ feet deep and 2 feet 1 inch at front widening to 3 ½ feet at back, where it is concave on plan. Between this recess and the circular chamber are two small boles, 8 inches broad and 6 inches high and 15 inches broad and 11 inches high respectively, in the wall about 3 feet from the foundation At the bottom of the wall in the south-eastern arc of the circular chamber is a recess 1 foot 4 inches broad, 11 inches high and 1 foot 6 inches deep. There is now no trace of a drain in the floor; the structure as a whole is collapsing. (Figs. 35, 36.)
The circular walling is 3 ½ feet high, and that of the rectangular chamber is 2 ½ feet high.
The whole building has been surrounded by a wall probably of stone, now much dilapidated and measuring 26 feet broad and 1 foot 3 inches high, forming an oval enclosure. While it almost encroaches on the chambers at one point, it is 18 feet distant at another.
Cf. Dean Monro on "The Pigmies Isle." Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., Vol. XXXIX., p. 248; also for character of structure Art. No. 106 (NA74NW 3).
RCAHMS 1928, visited 28 July 1921
OS map: Lewis i.
