South Uist, Usinish

Earth-houses, Usinish. –

[NF83SW 2:]

On the north side of Glen Usinish , on a steep hillside some 100 yards south of the precipitous face of Maoladh na h-Uamha, the south-eastern spur of Hecla, which towers above it, at an elevation of 400 feet above sea-level, and about 3/8 mile from the shore of the Minch, is an earth-house in a much dilapidated condition and partly hidden by bracken. It was described by Captain Thomas in 1867 in Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., Vol VII., p. 165 ff. (Fig. 164.)

In its present condition the structure appears as a circular building, some 26 feet in diameter internally, with small, oval, domical cells ranged around the inside of the wall and divided from each other by stone walls radiating from the centre of the building. The central portion and the southern half only shows a mass of loose stones, but around the northern arc five cells are traceable, the central cell, and the one next it to the west, being well enough preserved to show the shape and style of construction. The divisional walls terminate some 2 feet 3 inches from the outer wall, leaving a lintelled passage between the cells about 2 feet 3 inches high above the debris on the floor. Three of these communicating passages remain in a good state of preservation, those between the two cells just mentioned and leading from them into those adjoining. The beehive style of building is still clearly indicated in the central cell and its neighbour on the west, which measure 6 feet 9 inches in length by 6 feet 3 inches in breadth, and 6 feet 6 inches in length by 4 feet 9 inches in breadth, respectively, while the best preserved portions of their wall stand 4 feet and 5 feet 6 inches high. The best preserved dividing wall is reduced to a height of 2 feet 4 inches, and it is 1 foot 5 inches broad. How far it extended into the interior cannot be determined. On the floor level of the central chamber a well built opening in the outer wall, 1 foot 9 inches square, gives access to a passage, 2 feet in length, from which a short tunnel strikes off to the east for a distance of 4 feet 8 inches, it s height being 2 feet 3 inches and its breadth 3 feet 3 inches; to the left there is a finely built, lintelled passage, which curves round to the north and east, and terminates in a fine domical cell, 14 feet from the entrance; the floor of the cell is usually covered with several inches of mud and water. The passage varies slightly in size from 2 feet 6 inches high and 3 feet broad, near the entrance, to 2 feet 9 inches high and 2 feet 6 inches broad, at its inner end. The cell is oval, and measures 7 feet 6 inches in height, 6 feet 3 inches in length, and 5 feet 5 inches in breadth. It is roughly built and the sides converge all round till they can be covered with lintels. On the left hand, after entering, is a large lintelled recess 4 feet 3 inches in height, 1 foot 5 inches broad, and about the same in depth. In the main building there are two recesses in the outer wall of the western of the two best preserved central chambers. The largest, which is 2 feet 6 inches from the floor, measures 1 foot 7 inches in height, 1 foot 3 inches in breadth, and 3 feet in depth, while the smaller, which is placed 2 feet to the west, is 1 foot 2 inches square and 2 feet 3 inches deep.

The entrance to the main structure cannot be detected, as the outer wall is simply a ring of tumbled stones, about 2 feet high, overgrown with ferns and heather, but impinging on it s inner face on the south-west there is a broken, circular , beehive shaped cell, 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, the wall of which shows 3 feet of building in t he inside, an d beyond it and further to the south, some 16 feet from the inside of the main wall, there is a short section of what seems to have been a straight wall.

[NF83SW 5:]

There is a considerable number of ruined shielings near the earth-house, some 30 yards to the east-north-east , and rather higher up the hill are the remains of a circular building showing only the inner face of the wall on its northern arc. I t seems to have been some 20 feet in diameter internally, and as the stones used in its construct ion are often large, and the building is good, it is doubtless of much greater age than the shielings which are built inside and around it.

[NF83SW 4:]

At the top of a gully amongst the tumbled stones at the foot of the talus under the cliff, some 30 yards north-west of the earth-house, there are further indeterminate ruins, among which there apparently have been several beehive cells. One of these, about 6 feet in diameter, shows a height of 2 feet 6 inches of good building on one side. From the ruins a built passage carefully lintelled, 2 feet 6 inches in height, 1 foot 4 inches in width at its narrowest part, and 3 feet in length, leads into a chamber, formed under a huge slab fallen from the cliff above, and measuring about 17 feet in length, 7 feet at greatest breadth, and up to 4 feet in thickness. The vacancies under the edge of the slab have been closed by rough building.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 29 June 1915

The earth house shown on F W L Thomas' plan is at NF 8437 3326. It has been severely mutilated by its conversion into shielings; other sheilings have been constructed nearby using stones from the earth house.

Visited by OS (R D) 16 May 1965.

1:1250 Sketch

NF83SW 5 8437 3326.

Capt. Thomas described in 1867 a Pictish House to which a subterranean gallery and chamber was attached. It lay about 1/2 mile inland from Moll a Deas which is about 1 1/2 miles south of Husinish. It was called Meall na Uamh, or Cave Lump. From a partly excavated oval chamber (a) with fallen domed roof 14ft by 7ft and with two wall niches, led low curved passage (b) about 2 1/2ft square and 20ft long, to an elongated beehive chamber (c) 13ft by 5ft and 6 3/4ft high. On its right wall was another cell, (e) 5ft in diameter and 5ft high, entered by a doorway (d) 2ft square. The main passage inclined downwards so that the second chamber (c) was nearly 3ft lower than that of the first (a): and that of the inner one (e) a foot below the second (c). The plans and description were made by Colin MacVean, one of Capt. Otter's party of Surveyors .

Information from OS (SW) 14 October 1965

F W L Thomas 1870.

The above structure is identified by the OS Archaeology officer field investigator with the remains of a circular building noted by the RCAHMS some 30 yards ENE of "Uamh Iosal" (NF83SW 2) and rather lower down the hill than a considerable number of ruined shielings. Only the inner face of the northern arc of its wall survives but it seems to have been some 20ft in diameter internally. The construction of the wall is good, and its stones large, suggesting an earlier date for the building than the ruined shielings which are built in and around it.

Information from OS (SW) 15 October 1965

RCAHMS 1928.

Doubt is cast upon the identification of this earth house with that recorded by F W L Thomas, as he mentions only two earth houses in this vicinity and is one of the authorities for both Uamh Iosal (NF83SW 2) and Uamh Ghrantaich (NF83SW 6)

Information form OS (SW) 15 October 1965

Name Book 1876.

This prehistoric round-house, and a number of more recent structures related to the management of sheep, stand on a level terrace about 25m E of and above a wheelhouse (NF83SW 2) and 13m SW of and below a group of shieling huts (NF83SW 13). The roundhouse was first described by RCAHMS (JGC) in June 1915 who noted that ‘some 30 yds to the ENE [of NF83SW 2] and rather higher up the hill are the remains of a circular building showing only the inner face of the wall along its northern arc’. It was confused in subsequent descriptions (OS 1965) with the structures recorded in FWL Thomas’s publication, which actually lie further to the W. The field sketch undertaken by OS (RD) in 16 May 1965 does not adequately reflect the visible remains, and has led to the erroneous annotation ‘Souterrain’ appearing on some modern OS maps.

The roundhouse (NF 84376 33261) stands on the W edge of the group and measures about 7m in diameter within a wall up to 1.5m in thickness, which is best preserved on the N arc where the inner face stands 1.1m high. Elsewhere, the wall has been reduced to a low bank and a gap on the SE probably marks the position of an entrance. The western part of the roundhouse is overlain by a hut measuring 2.5m from NE to SW by 1.6m transversely within a wall 0.8m in thickness and 0.6m high, with an entrance on the SE. Another building, probably a roofed pen for lambs, measures 1.6m from NNW to SSE by 1.2m within a wall 0.6m thick and corbelled to a height of 1m. A gap on the E leads from it into a small enclosure, probably for ewes, that utilises the partly rebuilt wall of the round-house on the E and N; its S side is defined by a low boulder wall and there is an entrance on the SE.

A small, heavily modified, hut is situated immediately NE of the roundhouse. It once measured about 3m from ENE to WSW by 1.5m within a wall 0.6m thick and 0.6m high, but the interior has been reduced in both length and breadth and the entrance (0.5m) at the E end of the present S side is secondary. Immediately to the S of this hut is an irregular enclosure, the W side of which overlies the round-house. This enclosure, which was almost certainly designed for the milking of ewes while their lambs are secured in the roofed pen adjacent to its NE side, measures a maximum of 3.7m from NE to SW by 3.6m within a wall 0.8m in thickness and up to 1.2m in height. The pen, which is rectangular in plan and measures 1.7m from NE to SW by 1.2m internally, stands at a slightly higher level than the interior of the enclosure. A gap in the SE side of this enclosure links it with another, probably also for the milking of ewes, to the SE which has been more substantially built but is now largely denuded. Again irregular on plan, it measures 5.5m from NNE to SSW by 3.8m within a stone wall up to 1.5m in thickness and 0.5m in height. Attached to the NNE end and set at a slightly higher level than the interior of the enclosure is another roofed pen, measuring 2.8m from NNE to SSW by 1.5m within a wall 0.6m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The narrow entrance gap that once linked the pen and the enclosure has been blocked.

Immediately S of these structures, is a subrectangular enclosure which measures 2.8m from NNE to SSW by 2.5m within a boulder wall only 0.5m thick and 1.2m high. There is an entrance (0.6m wide) at the WNW end of the SSW end-wall and a wall that extends 3m to the S from its E side may have been intended to assist in the directing of stock into the interior. A small oval hut stands 5m to the S of this enclosure. It measures 1.7m from NE to SW by 1.2m within a wall 0.6m in thickness in which there is an aumbry on the NW and an entrance (0.6m wide) on the N. The structure has been set into the slope on the S to a depth of 0.9m.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AGCH, IP, AM) 23-25 April 2013.

RCAHMS surveyed the roundhouse, enclosures and pens at Usinish on 26 April 2013 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:250. The survey drawing was then used as the basis of an illustration redrawn in vector graphics software.