Monument record 457 - LUCHRUBAN, PIGMIE'S ISLE, LEWIS

NB56NW 4 5078 6600.

(NB 506 661) Luchruban (NAT)
OS 6'map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1898)

On the sea coast about 1 mile WSW of the Butt of Lewis is a precipitous grass-covered rock, rising some 60 - 70ft above the sea, and isolated from the mainland by a deep cleft. It is known as Luchruban and has been identified with the 'Eilean na Luchrupain', or Isle of Pigmies or Little Men, recorded by Dean Munro in about 1549, and later writers.
At the SE corner of the summit, which measures about 80ft - 70ft, is a building, built partly underground, which lies NE-SW and comprises an almost circular chamber about 10ft in diameter at the SW end, connected by a passage 9ft long and 2ft wide to a rectangular chamber 8ft long and 5 1/2ft wide. There is an entrance to the passage from the S, and opposite this on the other side there is a recess.
Captain Thomas (F W L Thomas 1890) mentions that within the gallery at the time of his visit, a stair of seventeen steps led up to a third gallery, and underneath them a smaller stair led down from a second but with no exit. Though the gallery walls still remain as shown on his plan, there is now nothing to suggest that stairs ever existed here. The foundations of later buildings were noted within the interior.
Excavated by Mackenzie who found animal and bird bones, peat-ash, and sherds of pottery identified by Stevenson (R B K Stevenson 1948) as Neolithic, but the context in which they were found is not clear.
The structure is enclosed within a turf-covered stone dyke on three sides.
W C Mackenzie 1905; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1916; RCAHMS 1928; R B K Stevenson 1948.

NB 5078 6600. This structure has deteriorated markedly since it was visited by RCAMS in 1928, and is now masked by tumble and vegetation. The inner wall-face of the circular compartment with the recess, and part of the inner wall-face of the rectangular enclosure are all that remain intelligible. There may well be more structures within the enclosure.
The topographical situation, the plan and the tradition of a chapel suggest that this may well be an early Christian oratory or hermitage. The Neolithic pottery could come from an earlier occupation of the site as it was found by 'digging up the floor of the so-called kirk, and between the upper layer of loam and the lower of sea sand'.
Surveyed at 1:2500
Visited by OS (R L) 16 June 1969.

Probable Early Christian hermitage comprising oratory and cell linked together with a passage (A C Thomas 1971).
A C Thomas 1971; L R Laing 1975.

There is active erosion on the landward edge of the site, and the adjacent mainland cliffs.
Structure A
Structure A is a building identified in the past as a chapel. It is rectangular, oriented east to west, semi-subterranean, and much overgrown and collapsed. As far as can be determined, its internal measurements are 2 x 2.5m. The drystone walls survive to a maximum of six courses. There is no sign of the exit passage which connected this structure to Structure B.
Three sherds of pottery were recovered from this building, two body sherds and one flat base sherd. They came from an eroding section north of the internal wall. They are non-diagnostic. A hammer stone was also recovered from a further eroding section in the N wall, although at a higher point, and it is possible that this came from the backfill of Mackenzie's excavations. The stone measures 10 x 6 cm, and has pitting around its circumference. Three possible struck quartz flakes were also found.
Structure B
Structure B is a circular building excavated by Mackenzie (ibid.). At present, its form appears to be slightly oval, with its long axis being oriented north-south, but the structure is much overgrown, and collapsed. On the north-eastern edge of B, a wall corner is visible, the north-western edge of the passage which joined A & B. There is no longer any sign of the drain described by Mackenzie.
Structure C
Structure C is to the west of A & B, and consists of a slight, oval concavity, which may be structural, in the terracing of the stack surface. It measures 3 x 4m.
Structure D
Structure D is another slight, circular concavity, to the west of C, with traces of a possible retaining drystone wall around its northern edge and a large stone slab along its eastern edge. It measures c. 4m in diameter. It is heavily overgrown.
Structure E
The enclosing wall shown on the Mackenzie's plan (1902, 251) is no longer clearly visible on the ground, being heavily overgrown. A vestige remains clear at the south-western edge of structure B, extending along the line of the cliff top.
The point marked by Mackenzie as the access to the site (ibid.), which enters the passage between structures A &B from the south, is no longer a safe access to the site, as erosion has made the cliff face more vertical. The present route ascends the eastern corner of the island more directly, to the east end of structure A.
Barrowman et al 2003 p11 - 14

W. C. Mackenzie, 1904-5, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 248-58 plan fig. 1; illust. fig. 2 (Bibliographic reference). SWE4585.

PSAS, 1915-16, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 12 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9903.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 9, No. 22 plan, fig. 37 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

R. B. K. Stevenson, 1945-6c, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 141 (Bibliographic reference). SWE8307.

A. C. Thomas, 1968, The Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain: the Hunter Marshall Lectures 1968, 85-6 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7682.

L. R. Laing, 1975c, The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland c. 400-1200 AD, 378 (Bibliographic reference). SWE3794.

C. Barrowman, I. McHardy, M. MacLeod, 2003, Severe Terrain Archaeological Campaign (STAC)Project 2.1. Seirbhis Arc-eolais nan Eilean Siar, Stornoway. (Bibliographic reference). SWE41052. (Bibliographic reference). SWE41052.