(From Plate XXXI. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)
_Fig. 8._ Captain Thomas selects this as "the most modern, and at the
same time the last, in all probability, that will be constructed in this
manner"--viz., "roofed by the horizontal or cyclopean arch, _i.e._, by a
system of overlapping stones." "The woman who was living in it [about
1869] told us it was built for his shieling by Dr. Macaulay's
grandfather, who was tacksman [leaseholder] of Linshader ... and I
conclude that it was made about ninety years back."[72]
_Fig. 9._ Sir Arthur Mitchell says of this compound "bee-hive"
house:--"The greatest height of the living room--in its centre, that
is--was scarcely 6 feet. In no part of the dairy was it possible to
stand erect. The door of communication between the two rooms was so
small that we could get through it only by creeping. The great
thickness of the walls, 6 to 8 feet, gave this door, or passage of
communication, the look of a tunnel, and made the creeping through it
very real. The creeping was only a little less real in getting through
the equally tunnel-like, though somewhat wider and loftier passage,
which led from the open air into the first or dwelling room."[73]
[Footnote 72: _Op. cit._, p. 161.]
[Footnote 73: _The Past in the Present_, p. 60.]
[Illustration: PLATE III.
BEE-HIVE HOUSES, FIDIGIDH IOCHDRACH, UIG, LEWIS, HEBRIDES. Inhabited
1859.]