Chapter 4

(From Plate X. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

At the date of Captain Thomas's visit (1861) a man was still living who had been born in one or other of these dwellings.

PLATE V.--_Ground Plan of Bee-Hive House, Island of Benbecula._

(From Plate XXXII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

PLATE VI.--_Chambered Mound (Both Stacseal), near Stornoway, Lewis._

(From Plate XXXII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

With reference to the _farlos_, or smoke-hole (otherwise "sky-light"), which, in this instance, is at a height of 7 feet from the floor of the dwelling, Captain Thomas remarks:--"A man, on standing upright, can often put his head out of the hole and look around" (_op. cit._, vol. iii., p. 130 _n._). This suggests the following story, told by Mr. J.F. Campbell (_West Highland Tales_, vol. ii., pp. 39-40):

"There was a woman in Baile Thangusdail, and she was out seeking a couple of calves; and the night and lateness caught her, and there came rain and tempest, and she was seeking shelter. She went to a knoll with the couple of calves, and she was striking the tether-peg into it. The knoll opened. She heard a gleegashing (_gliogadaich_) as if a pot-hook were clashing beside a pot. She took wonder, and she stopped striking the tether-peg. A woman put out her head and all above her middle, and she said, 'What business hast thou to be troubling this tulman [mound] in which I make my dwelling?' 'I am taking care of this couple of calves, and I am but weak. Where shall I go with them?' 'Thou shalt go with them to that breast down yonder. Thou wilt see a tuft of grass. If thy couple of calves eat that tuft of grass, thou wilt not be a day without a milk cow as long as thou art alive, because thou hast taken my counsel.'

"As she said, she never was without a milk cow after that, and she was alive fourscore and fifteen years after the night that was there."

PLATES VII. AND VIII.--_"Agglomeration of Bee-Hives" at Uig, Lewis._

(From Plates XV. and XVI. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

"By far the most singular of all these structures, and probably unique in the Long Island, is at Gearraidh na h-Airde Moire, on the shore of Loch Resort. I cannot describe it better than by bidding you suppose twelve individual bee-hive huts all built touching each other, with doors and passages from one to the other. The diameter of this gigantic booth is 46 feet, and [it] is nearly circular in plan. The height of the doors and passages about 2½ feet; and under the smokehole (_farlos_), in two of the chambers, the height was 6½ feet.... I am informed that, so late as 1823, this _both_ was inhabited by four families." (Captain Thomas, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iii., p. 139.)

PLATE IX.--_Compound "Both" situated near the above._

(From Plate XIV. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

PLATE X.--_"Both" and Underground Gallery at Meall na h-Uamh, Huishnish, South Uist._

(From Plate XXXIII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

"I have next to notice," says Captain Thomas (_op. cit._, p. 164), "that form of bo'h, Pict's house, or clochan, whichever name may be adopted by archæologists, to which a hypogeum or subterranean gallery is attached.... [The present example] is in South Uist, about half a mile inland from Moll a Deas (South Beach); and the Moll is about one mile and a half to the south of Husinish (Husness, _i.e._, Houseness). The site of the bo'h is called Meall na [h-] Uamh, or Cave Lump [more correctly, the Mound of the Cave, or 'Weem.'] It consists of a partly excavated oval dwelling chamber (_a_), 7 feet by 14 feet on the floor; the dome roof has fallen in; there are two _cuiltean_, or niches in the wall. A low curved subterranean passage (_b_), about 2½ feet square and 20 feet in length, leads into an elongated bee-hive chamber (_c_), 13 feet by 5 feet, and 6¾ feet high; from thence an entrance (_d_), 2 feet by 2 feet, admits to a small circular chamber or cell (_e_), 5 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. The main passage inclines downwards, so that the floor of the second chamber (_c_) is nearly 3 feet lower than that of the first (_a_); and that of the inner one (_e_) a foot below the second (_c_)."

PLATES XI. AND XII.--_"Both" and Underground Gallery at Huishnish, South Uist._

(From Plates XXXIV. and XXXV. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

"An ancient dwelling, semi-subterranean, exists at Nisibost, Harris [and is described in vol. iii. of the _Proceedings_, p. 140].... A still finer example exists near to Meall na h-Uamh, in South Uist.... The bo'h, or Pict's house, as it would be called in the Orkneys--but the name is unknown in the Long Island--that I am about to describe lies less than half a mile above the shepherd's house; but so little curiosity had that individual that he was entirely unacquainted with it; and I believe it would never have been found by us but for a little terrier (in its etymological sense, of course) of a daughter. The child was only acquainted with the two here drawn [of which the other--viz., _Uamh Sgalabhad_, is here reproduced as Plate I., frontispiece]; but there may be many more waiting the researches of the zealous antiquary." (Captain Thomas, _op. cit._, p. 165.)

PLATE XIII.--_Underground Gallery at Paible, Taransay, Harris._

(From Plate XXIX. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)

Describing this earth-house, Captain Thomas says:--"The drawing is from a photograph of the entrance, which is 2 feet 10 inches high and 1½ foot broad. The sea flows up to it at high tides. On crawling in, there is seen the usual guard-cell (_b_), close beside the entrance, but so small that we may be sure the sentinel, if there was one, must have been a light weight; in fact, we are almost driven to the conclusion that there were no Bantings in those days. This guard-cell is but 2 feet 5 inches high, and 3 feet in width. The gallery then turns at a right angle to the left hand. We excavated it for 22 feet.... When digging, we came upon two broken stone dishes (corn-crushers?) now in the Museum [Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]; and above the gallery were most of the bones of a small ox, placed orderly together.... Bones of the seal were common, and a few of the eagle." (_Op. cit._, p. 169.)

PLATES XIV., XV., AND XVI.--_Maes-How, Orkney._

These plates represent the "Pict's house" referred to by Captain Thomas (pp. 50-51, _ante_), with regard to which he says:--"Maes howe was for three families--grandees, no doubt; but the numbers it was intended to hold in the _beds_ may be learned by comparing them with the Amazon's House, St. Kilda."

The structure last named is described by Captain Thomas and Mr. T.S. Muir in vol. iii. of the _Proceedings_ (pp. 225-228), where it is stated:--"The Amazon's House is of the same class with our earliest stone buildings--belonging to the era of cromlechs, stone-circles, Picts' castles, &c.; but while in other parts of Britain the style and type have vanished for a thousand years, in the Outer Hebrides we find them (in the Bothan [_i.e._, 'boths' or 'bee-hive houses'] of Uig) continued to the present day." The following additional remarks by Captain Thomas are also of interest in this connection:--"It appears that besides the Tigh na Bhanna ghaisgach (Ty-na-Van-a-ghas-gec), or Amazon's House--and of whom all tradition, except her name, has gone--there are the remains of other submerged dwellings and hypogea. Miss Euphemia MacCrimmon, the oldest inhabitant of that far-off island, tells that a certain Donald Macdonald and John Macqueen, on passing a hillock, heard churning going on within. And about thirty years ago, when digging into the hillock to make the foundations of a new house, they discovered what seemed to be the fairies' residence, built of stones inside, and holes in the wall, or croops, as they call them, as in Airidh na Bhannaghaisgach."[74]

It will be noticed that the "beds" in Maes-How are on a higher level than the floor of the main chamber. "In the winter houses," observes Captain Thomas,[75] "the floor of the bed-place was raised 3 or 4 feet above the ground."

The original use of Maes-How is a matter of opinion, and some have assumed it to belong to the class of sepulchral mounds, although there is no evidence in support of this belief. For many reasons, the opinions of Captain Thomas are endorsed by the present writer. It may be added that, prior to 1861, when the mound was opened, local tradition had declared that it was the residence of a "hog-boy," or mound-dweller.

[Footnote 74: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ (First Series), vol. vii. p. 172.]

[Footnote 75: _Op. cit._, p. 164.]

PLATES XVII., XVIII., AND XIX.--_Brugh of the Boyne, New Grange, County Meath._

The diagrams here shown are from drawings by Mr. W.F. Wakeman, the veteran Irish archæologist.[76] With reference to the spiral carvings at the doorway of the Brugh, it may be mentioned that "the same kind of ornament appears on a stone found amidst a heap which had once been a 'Pict's-house' in the island of Eday, Orkney;"[77] and that in Orkney, also, there has been found, in an underground house, a large stone "saucer," or "tray," resembling the two shown in the ground plan of the Brugh. (There appears to be no settled opinion as to the uses of those "saucers.")

In connection with the identification of this mound with the "Brugh of the Boyne" of ancient Irish history, the following remarks may be quoted. The Rev. Father O'Laverty, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (December, 1892, p. 430) thus observes:--

"In his very valuable work, _The Boyne and Blackwater_, Sir William Wilde appears to me to have used convincing arguments to prove that _Brugh-na-Boinne_ ... was ... on the left bank of the Boyne, convenient to the ford of _Ros-na-righ_ (Rossnaree) at Knowth, Dowth, and Newgrange. To Sir William's arguments one point only was wanting: the old name had disappeared.... It is now more than thirty years since I went to Newgrange for the special purpose of investigating that matter. I explained to Mr. Maguire, then of Newgrange, and to his son, that _Brugh-na-Boinne_ signified 'the town, or dwelling-place, on the Boyne,' that the word _Brugh_ would assume the modern form _Bro_, as in Brughshane (pronounced Broshane), and many other townland names, and that _na-Boinne_, 'of the Boyne,' would probably cease to be used as unnecessary at the site. I need not say that I was greatly pleased when they informed me that the field in which is the mound of Newgrange is called the _Bro-Park_, while in the immediate vicinity are the _Bro-Farm_, the _Bro-Mill_, and the _Bro-Cottage_." [And also, they might have added, the mansion of _Broe House_.]

Any one, therefore, who duly considers the matter, in relation to the statements of both of these writers, will see that the mound at New Grange is the _Brugh-na-Boinne_ of Irish history and tradition. And this name, says Father O'Laverty, "signified 'the town, or dwelling-place, on the Boyne.'" What, then, are the earliest associations with this "town or dwelling-place?"

It is said[78] to have been built by a celebrated "king and oracle" of the people known as the Tuatha Dé, Dea, or De Danann, and to have been the residence of himself and others of his race. This chief (Eochaid _Ollathair_) is usually referred to as "the Dagda," or "the Daghda Mòr"; and of his nation it is asserted that, after having invaded Ireland and conquered its native "Fir-Bolgs," they were themselves conquered in turn by a later race of immigrants, the Gaels. This "Brugh," therefore, is said to have been the residence of the Dagda, and, after him, of Angus, one of his sons. Consequently, it is very frequently styled "the Brugh of Angus, son of the Dagda," an appellation which assumes various forms.[79] Latterly, it seems to have been most generally known as "the Brugh" (_par excellence_), or, more simply still, as "Brugh." In the Book of Leinster it is specified as one of "Ireland's three undeniable eminences [_dindgna_]"[80]; while "an ancient poem by Mac Nia, son of Oenna (in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190 b.)," styles it "a king's mansion" and a "_sídh_." The same MS. (32 _a b_) gives the variant _Sídh an Bhrogha_, rendered by Dr. Standish O'Grady "the fairy fort of the _Brugh_ upon the Boyne."[81] This word "_sídh_," which was applied--probably in the first place--to hollow mounds such as this, but which was also applied to the dwellers in them, gave the Tuatha De Danann their most popular name. Because it was on account of their residence in "the green mounds, known by the name of _Sídh_," that they were called "the _Fir Sídhe_ [_i.e._, men of the _sídhs_], or Fairies, of Ireland."[82] The one word, indeed (_sídh_), became indifferently applied to the dwellings and the dwellers. Whichever was the earliest meaning of that word, there is little dubiety as to the etymology of _Siabhra_. In one copy of the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_,[83] it is stated that the Tuatha De Danann "were called _Siabhras_." O'Reilly defines _siabhra_ as "a fairy," and _siabhrach_ as "fairy-like"; while "a fairy mansion" is _siabhrugh_. With Connellan, again, _siabhrog_ is "a fairy." It seems quite evident that these are all corruptions of _sídh-bhrugh_ (otherwise _Sídh an Bhrogha_, as above), and that _Siabhra_, as applied to the _dwellers_, was simply a transference from the name denoting their _dwellings_.

Numerous as are the references to this mound as a "dwelling-place," its name figures prominently in the list of the ancient cemeteries of Ireland. _Relec in Broga_, "the Cemetery of the Brugh," is referred to as one of "the three cemeteries of Idolaters," in an Irish manuscript of the twelfth century (or earlier), the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ cited above. Of the two others, one is "the Cemetery of Cruachan"; and, by glancing at it, in the first place, we shall obtain a good idea of the Cemetery of the Brugh. "We find that the monuments within the cemetery at Rathcroghan,"[84] says Mr. Petrie, "are small circular mounds, which, when examined, are found to cover rude, sepulchral chambers formed of stone, without cement of any kind, and containing unburned bones."[85] And the twelfth-century scribe whom Mr. Petrie largely quotes, says that there were fifty such mounds (_cnoc_) in the cemetery at Cruachan. This mediæval scholar has copied a poem on the subject, "ascribed to Dorban, a poet of West Connaught," wherein it is said that it is not in the power of poets or of sages to reckon the number of heroes under the Cruachan mounds, and that there is not a hillock (_cnoc_) in that cemetery "which is not the grave of a king or royal prince, or of a woman, or warlike poet." In another verse, he says that _each_ of the fifty mounds had a warrior under it; and, altogether, it appears that, although their number could doubtless be "reckoned," yet the burial mounds of Cruachan, in or about the twelfth century, much exceeded fifty in number. "Fifty" is simply used by the poet and his commentator to show that, like the two other cemeteries of the triad (each of which is also said to have had fifty) the Cemetery of Cruachan contained about a third of the pagan notables of Ireland.

From this we see that, about the twelfth century, the Cemetery of the Brugh contained at least fifty sepulchral mounds such as those described by Mr. Petrie at Cruachan. Mr. Petrie further quotes two passages from the _Dinnsenchus_, which specify in the following terms some of the most famous of those "monuments" at the Brugh:--

"The Grave [or Stone Cairn, _Leacht_] of the Dagda; the Grave of Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagda; the Graves of Cirr and Cuirrell, wives of the Dagda--'these are two hillocks [_da cnoc_]'; the Grave of Esclam, the Dagda's Brehon, 'which is called _Fert-Patric_ at this day'; the Cashel [or Stone Enclosure] of Angus, son of Crunmael; the Cave [_Derc_] of Buailcc Bec; the Stone Cairn [_Leacht_] of Cellach, son of Maelcobha; the Stone Cairn [_Leacht_] of the steed of Cinaedh, son of Irgalach; the Prison [_Carcar_] of Liath-Macha; the 'Glen' of the Mata; the Pillar Stone of Buidi, the son of Muiredh, where his head is interred; the Stone of Benn; the Grave of Boinn, the wife of Nechtan; the 'Bed' of the daughter of Forann; the _Barc_ of Crimthann Nianar, in which he was interred; the Grave of Fedelmidh, the Lawgiver; the _Cumot_ of Cairbre Lifeachair; the _Fulacht_ of Fiachna Sraiphtine."

These, of course, are only some of the most famous of the sepulchral monuments which existed in the Cemetery of the Brugh eight or nine centuries ago. Since that time, most of them have disappeared, their stones having been presumably built into castles, mansions, cottages and walls, while the bones of the queens and heroes have fertilised the soil of the neighbouring farms. But there still remain a few "standing-stones" and "moats" in the vicinity of the Brugh, all of which may be included in the above list.

I have cited that list for the reason that modern antiquaries, or many of them, have assumed that _Síd in Broga_ and _Relec in Broga_ are synonymous terms, and that when a king or hero is recorded to have been buried "at Brugh," that means that he was buried _in_ the Brugh itself. In other words, that a place which was known as Fert-Patrick in or about the twelfth century, as also the "cashel" and the many hillocks, graves, and cairns mentioned in the list--not to speak of innumerable others--were all situated in the chamber which is shown in Plate XIX. It does not require a moment's reflection to convince one that this is an erroneous assumption. Nor is it warranted by the "History of the Cemeteries" itself, which always speaks of the burials having been "_at_ Brugh."[86]

One other statement, however, must be referred to. In another verse of Dorban's poem, mentioned above, it is said that "the host of Meath" are buried "_ar lár in Broga tuathaig_." This is rendered by Petrie, "in the middle of the lordly Brugh." The translation is no doubt good; and it is open to any one to deduce therefrom that the chamber shown in the plan contained at one time the skeletons of the host of Meath. In that case, the "host" must have been very limited in number; and anyone who has crawled along the sixty-foot passage into the Brugh, and who adopts this view, must wonder a little as to how the corpses were conveyed along that passage, and as to the reasons which must have induced some people (prior to 1699, when the chamber was almost, if not altogether, void of such relics)[87] to drag all those bones out again, at much personal inconvenience. But "_ar lár in Broga_" may also mean "in the [burying-] ground of the Brugh"; and the descriptions quoted above from the _Dinnsenchus_ show quite clearly that the ground in which "the host of Meath" were buried embraced a considerable tract of land, dotted over with mounds and monuments, differing only in degree from those of a modern cemetery.[88]

The twelfth-century commentator of Dorban's poem states: