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Photo: Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A stone circle, the best on the island, not least for its setting. It's more like an ellipse, and dates to around 2000 BC. Pobull Fhinn means Finn's tent or shieling - same word as Peebles in the Borders.
Pobull Fhinn is a stone circle on the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The name is Gaelic. The first word has been variously spelt as pobull, poball, pobul or as plural pobuill. The phrase can be translated as "Fionn's people", "the white/fair people", or "Finn's tent". The plural form Pobuill Fhinn can be translated as "Fionn's peoples" and is unlikely to be correct.
Hut of the Shadows
The hut is open 24 hours but is only worth visiting on a sunny day. Enter the stone chamber and within is projected a view of Lochmaddy. Close the gate, or the sheep will get in.
A stout Iron Age broch, built circa 100 BC to 100 AD, but in the medieval period converted to a rectangular hall. It's on an islet reached by causeway from the larger islet of Eilean na Mi-Chomhairle, in turn reached by causeways from either north or south banks of the loch. Sticir means "skulker". In 1602 Hugh MacDonald of Sleat was a fugitive here after planning to murder his clan chief. The loch is tidal, so the causeways flood at high tide and are in poor repair.
An octagonal Georgian folly built circa 1830, obliterating a broch. It's on an islet that can be reached at low tide, otherwise you see it fine from shore, it's derelict within. And they call this small tower a folly, when the council is considering spending megabucks to turn Scolpaig into a spaceport??
Where corncrakes can be heard, if rarely seen. Allow 2 or 3 hours for the circular walk.
Trinity Church
Ruins of a 13th-century church and Augustinian nunnery, derelict after the Reformation. The Battle of Carinish, fought nearby in 1601, may have been the last battle fought with bows and arrows in Britain. It was part of a feud between Clan Macleod of Dunvegan and Clan Macdonald of Sleat; the Macdonalds won the day and the overall conflict.