North Uist, Loch Skealtar, Eilean Buidhe
Building(S) (Medieval)(Possible), Causeway (Medieval), Fortified Island (Medieval), Harbour(S) (Medieval)
Site Name North Uist, Loch Skealtar, Eilean Buidhe
Classification Building(S) (Medieval)(Possible), Causeway (Medieval), Fortified Island (Medieval), Harbour(S) (Medieval)
Canmore ID 10212
Site Number NF86NE 3
NGR NF 8963 6861
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10212
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF86NE 3 8963 6861
(NF 8963 6861) Eilean Buidhe, an island in Loch Skealtar, has been occupied as a 'fort' with the remains of walls round its edge. It is connected to the S shore of the loch by a 120 yard causeway. The main gateway of the island end of the causeway has been supplemented by two boat-entrances on the SW and NE respectively, the latter leading into a small shallow harbour protected by a wall. Remains of at least four circular buildings were found, also a large mound (perhaps natural) near the centre of the north side of the island.
E Beveridge 1911.
A tumbled wall, 0.8m high and 1.0m wide, skirts the southern half of Eilean Buidhe: the northern half is unprotected. There are several breaks in the wall which could be possible harbours. The amorphous remains of two of the four circular buildings mentioned above can still be seen in the SE and SW, and the mound is undoubtedly natural. No trace of a causeway can be seen.
Visited by OS (R D) 14 June 1965.
Field Visit (7 August 1914)
Fortified Island, Eilean Buidhe, Loch Skealtar.
Some 120 yards from the southern shore and 350 yards from the eastern end of Loch Skealtar, which lies about 11 miles west of Lochmaddy, is a flat grass-covered islet, Eilean Buidhe ("yellow island"), partially encompassed by the remains of a stone wall. The island, irregular in outline, measures some 162 feet from north to south and about the same distance across the southern end; it contracts in width near the centre and expands again on the north. In general height the island is about 5 feet above the level of the loch, but in its northern end it rises to a height of about10 feet. It shows the remains of a defending wall only round the southern end and along both flanks for a distance of about 140 feet. At the south-western corner and along the western flank portions of the wall still reach a height of about 3 feet and show a width of some 4 feet. In the line of the wall at the south-western corner is a pillar of stone 4 feet 8 inches high, 2 feet 3 inches broad, and 1 foot 6 inches thick.
Near the centre of the eastern and western sides of the island, where it contracts in width, are two small, shallow bays converted into harbours by the protecting wall being carried across their mouth. The harbour on the eastern side, which is the smaller of the two, is entered by a clearly defined gap in the wall 6 feet wide, and the western harbour, which measures 30 feet in length from north to south and 15 feet in width, is provided with a carefully-fashioned entrance 7 feet wide, the wall on either side curving inwards for a few feet.
At the southern end of the island there is a ruined gateway or boat-slip about 4 feet 6 inches wide. Opposite it on the southern shore of the loch, at the end of a small promontory, is a setting of stones carried under the water, suggesting a submerged causeway.
Apparently there have been a number of buildings on the island, one of which, abutting on the wall to the south and slightly to the west of the axial line of the island, is represented by a mass of stones 18 feet long and 12 feet broad, and another near the south-east corner of the island by a circular heap 11 feet in diameter.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 7 August 1914.
OS map: North Uist xxxv (unnoted).
