Barpa Langais

Barpa Langais is the best preserved and largest of the Neolithic, chambered, burial cairns on North Uist. Its massive size suggests, according to Erskine Beveridge, that it was the burial place of some great chief and intended as both a tomb and a monument. Its prominent outline and siting, midway up Beinn Langais, is remarkable for the labour which must have been involved in carrying from a great distance and placing so many large stones into its pyramid shape. it is now too dangerous to enter because of the collapsed stonework. Beveridge found remnants of of burnt burials and fragments of Bronze Age urn pottery within the first chamber and he suggested that two further chambers may well lie beyond the entrance to the east.

‘S e an càrn-tiodhlacaidh le sèomraichean as motha agus as fhèarr air an glèidheadh bho Linn Nuadh na Cloiche ann an Uibhist a Tuath a th’ ann am Barpa Langais. Tha e cho mòr ‘s gun robh Erskine Beveridge de ‘n bheachd gun robh àrd-uachdran ainmeal air a thiodhlacadh ann is gur e an dà chuid carragh-cuimhne agus uaigh a bh’ ann. Tha e air a shuidheachadh lethach suas Beinn Langais agus iongantach airson an obair a chuireadh ann le bhi giulainn leithid a chlachan mòra air astar, a bharrachd air an obair clachaireachd a chaidh do thogalach dhan chruth seo. Fhuair Beveridge criomagan loisgte air fhàgail bho thiodhlacan agus sgealban de phoitean bho Linn an Umha anns a’ chiad sèomar. Bha e de ‘n bheachd gu robh dà shèomar eile na b’ fhaide a-staigh ris an taobh an Ear. Tha e nis ro chunnartach a dhol na bhroinn leis gu bheil e a’ falbh às a chèile.

Pobull Fhinn is the most conspicuous Megalithic stone circle on North Uist and, lying on a plateau, is situated an easy walk away from Barpa Langais, overlooking the sea. (It is interesting to speculate on the type of social relationships that might have existed between the two sites.) The stones of Pobull Fhinn are shaped in an oval rather than a circle, their east-west axis being slightly longer than that to the north-south. The purposes of such circles are still open to considerable debate - were they placed to plot the celestial movements of the sun, the seasonal cycles or those of the dark, the moon and the stars? For what community celebrations or rituals might these huge stones have been hewn and dragged so high up to denote? Certainly they represent considerable effort and confidence on the part of the early Neolithic farming communities who erected them.

‘S e na tursaichean as fhollaisaiche bho Meadhan Linn na Cloiche ann an Uibhist a Tuath a th’ ann am Poball Fhinn. Tha iad air talamh còmhnard, àrd faisg air Barpa Langais a’ coimhead a-mach air a mhuir. Saoil dè an ceangal a tha eadar an dà àite? Tha iad air an cur suas ann an cruth uighe an àite cruth cruinne. Chan eil sinn cìnnteach fhathast carson a bha iad air an togail, an ann a leantainn na grèine a bha iad no na ràithean, a gheallach no na reultan? Saoil dè an t-adhbhar a bh’ aig na daoine na clachan seo a shnaith agus an tarraing gu àite cho àrd? Tha na tursaichean seo a’ sealltainn dhuinn cho innleachdach agus misneachail ‘s a bha na tuathanaich seo bho Linn Nuadh na Cloiche.