Monument record 9614 - 'The Giant's House', BY58 Berneray, Barra

BY58: modern house (a) (the Giant's House) with barn (b). Low on slope to coast edge. Rectangular, 12 x 6.2m, with 0.8m thick walls, possiblyt originally a single cell using quarried, dressed and in the east fireplace machine-cut, stone pointed with cement. The building has been extnesively modified, possibly in parts rebuilt, and was last used as a sheep dip and stock yard. The eastern half of the house appears to have been rebuilt into a lean-to type of temporary accommodation for visiting shepherds. The east end gable wall was raised square with additional sloping raised sides on top of the north and south wall. A sloping corrugated tin roof may have been fixed. The fireplace at this end may already have been rebuilt since in its construction is some quarried and machine-cut stonework. A doorway to the south appears to have been blocked and a window to the north reduced. From the probably position of the original front north door (there are two threshold paving stone slabs in the floor at this point ) the wall was opened both front and rear and wooden gates inserted to fill the gap. To make an enclosed room in the lean-to half of the building a cross wall with north doorway was built and the whole of the interior rendered with mortar. The west wall, with what appears to be an original fireplace, remains intact with two wall stubs of the north and south walls forming an enclosure before the lean to. In the south end of this enclosure is a sheep dip leading to an external concrete apron and a stock yard that runs the outside length of the house. 1.5m from the west wall of the house is a square barn (b) 6.2 x 6m, single cell with an entrance to the north. The house was called the 'giant's house' because it was reputedly the home of 'Big Peter' or the 'Barra Giant' (Padraig Mor (personal communication, John Allen) who stood 2.06m (Buxton 1995).
Branigan & Foster 2000, 138

Buxton, C. B., 1995, Mingulay: An Island and its People (Bibliographic reference). SWE41034.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.