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North Uist, Loch A' Phobuill, Sornach Coir' Fhinn

Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Site Name North Uist, Loch A' Phobuill, Sornach Coir' Fhinn

Classification Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Canmore ID 10269

Site Number NF86SW 28

NGR NF 82890 63030

NGR Description Centred NF 82890 63030

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10269

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Bluesky International Limited 2025. Public Sector Viewing Terms

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Western Isles
  • Parish North Uist
  • Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
  • Former District Western Isles
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NF86SW 28 8287 6305

(NF 8289 6302) Sornach Coir' Fhinn (NR)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

This stone circle is known locally as Sornach a' Phobuill although shown by the OS as Sornach Coir' Fhinn.

The circle is slightly oval, 130ft NW-SE by 115ft NE-SW. Its circuit is marked by a slight bank in which 13 erect stones can be counted. More may exist below the peat as the positions of those visible suggest that over 50 stones would be needed to complete the circle. Eleven of the stones stand from 1 to 1 1/4ft above the peat: a thin pointed pillar on the east stands 5ft high, and, in the NW, another stone, 3 1/2ft high, stands in a slight hollow.

E Beveridge 1911; RCAHMS 1928.

This stone circle is c. 39.0m in diameter. Fourteen stones can be seen, with another visible in a crack in the peat. The largest stone is 1.2m high, 1.1m broad and 0.3m thick and its opposite number on the west side is 0.9m high x 0.8m broad x 0.6m thick. The others are generally below 1.0m high and some are barely visible above ground. Unable to check names.

Surveyed at 1/10,560.

Visited by OS (W D J) 3 June 1965.

Activities

Field Visit (15 August 1915)

Stone Circle (Sornach Coir' Fhinn), Loch a Phobuill.

About 140 yards east of Loch a Phobuill, a small loch lying about 1 mile south-east of Clachan a Luib, near the base of the gentle north-western slope of Craonaval, at an elevation of under 50 feet above sea-level, is the stone circle marked Sornach Coir Fhinn on O.S. map, though locally known as Sornach a Phobuill (Beveridge 1911, 259-60). This circle is slightly oval, measuring 130 feet in diameter from north-west to south-east, and II5 feet from north-east to south-west. Its circuit is marked by a slight bank in which thirteen erect stones can be counted; of these eleven stand from 1 foot to 2 feet 3 inches in height above the peat that has grown around them. The other two stones, one on the east, a thin, pointed pillar, shows a height of 5 feet, a breadth at the present exposed base of 3 feet, and a thickness of 10 inches; the other stone, on the north-west, which stands in the hollow of a moss-hag, shows a height of 3 feet 7 inches and a girth of 7 feet 5 inches. Eight stones appear on the north-western quadrant (six of them in a length of 45 feet), three on the south-west, one on the south-east, and the largest stone on the east. Probably more stones would be found by cutting away the peat, because if the circle had been completed with the relative number of stones along its whole circumference, as appear on the north-west, over fifty would have been required.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 5 August 1915

OS map: North Uist xxxix

Field Visit (25 September 2010)

This stone circle is situated on a gentle E-facing slope dropping down to the shore of a small lochan. Slightly oval on plan, it measures 41m from N to S by 36.5m transversely and comprises at least fourteen stones, several of which are flush with the surface of the peat, while most of the rest protrude between 0.2m and 0.3m. The one exception is a pointed stone 1.3m high on the E (NF 82908 63032). Of the remainder, eight are disposed on the NW quarter and four on the S, where they are close set and some no more than 1.5m apart. The stones range in size and shape from the pointed slab on the E to small blocky boulders on the NW, and while together they set out the circumference of the circle, individually their axes are very irregular. There is a vague impression that the stones are set out along the crest of a low mound, but it is unclear whether this feature reflects the presence of a bank on the surface beneath the peat, or whether it is simply the result of the way the peat has grown up around the stones.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH) 25 September 2010

Measured Survey (18 September 2012)

RCAHMS surveyed the stone circle at Loch A' Phobuill on 18 September 2012 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:200. The survey drawing was used as the basis of an illustration redrawn in vector graphics software.

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