Monument record 2495 - BARPA LANGASS, NORTH UIST

NF86NW 6 8381 6571.

(NF 8381 6571) Barpa Langass (NR)
OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Barpa Langass is a cairn 14ft high and edged by a peristalith 80ft in diameter of which 14 stones can be seen. On the E side there is a funnel-shaped forecourt within which is a mass of cairn material removed during attempts to find the passage. The latter is intact except for the outer few feet, and leads into an oval chamber 13ft 3ins long by 6ft wide, roofed with three lintels.
E Beveridge (1911) found evidence of burnt burials, sherds and wood ash in debris removed from the interior. In the late 19th century a second chamber was said to be attainable by a passage from the N side.
Finds, in the NMAS, include Beaker and IA, or later, shreds, a few flints, a barbed and tanged arrowhead, and burnt bone (presumably human).
A S Henshall 1972; E Beveridge 1911; V G Childe 1940.

This chambered cairn is as described and planned by Henshall. Nothing was seen of the second chamber.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (J T T) 10 June 1965.

The entry in the Schedule of Monuments.... is hereby ... amended to describe the area of the scheduled monument as measuring 80m in diameter, centred on the cairn, to include the monument and an area around it in which remains associated with its construction and use may survive...
Historic Scotland schedule entry 17.3.2000

Anon, 1885, Sailing Directions for the West Coast of Scotland, 7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13395.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 246-8 photos. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

V G Childe, 1940, Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles, 70 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13839.

R W Feachem, 1963b, A Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, 49-50 (Bibliographic reference). SWE2141.

A. Henshall, 1972a, The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, 500-3, UST 6 plan (Bibliographic reference). SWE3275.

J N G and M Ritchie and Harman, 1985, Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Argyll and the Western Isles, 150, no. 86 (Bibliographic reference). SWE6206.

R McCullagh, 1988-89h, Glasgow Archaeol J, 38 (Bibliographic reference). SWE30518.