Review of Erskine Beveridge’s book on Coll and Tiree (1903)
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Summary
PREHISTORIC FORTS AND ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF COLL AND TIREE
The islands of Coll and Tiree are considerably out of the track of ordinary tourists, hence the relics and sculptured remainsof a bygone age in these islands of the Inner Hebrides have been left obscure and unnoted to a degree not accorded to similar fragments on the mainland.
The work of enumeration and classification of the duns or forts of Coll and Tirce has been undertaken by Mr Erskine Beveridge, the laird of Vallay, in North Uist who, with somewhat rare abnegation, has sought, as he says, “simply to describe what was seen, and to leave inferences alone” “A hard saying,” he comments, and yet, as an authority has expressed it, “better only describe the objects and place of finding and let philosophers see to the dates.” Scholars and philosophers, it may at once be admitted, will find much material lying to their hands in Mr Beveridge’s exhaustive and systematically expressed work. Of duns, or prehistoric forts in Coll and Tiree, it appears there are no less than sixty-one remains of various types, and apparently of a date not later than about AD 1000, “with quite a thousand years of possible earlier chronology.” Most of the duns are found close to the western shores of these islands. Mr Beveridge gives as a not unusual inference that the occupants expected their foes from seaward.
Further, the duns—more especially upon the seashore—as a rule stand in a continuous chain, each within view of the next; so notably indeed, that on several instances a fresh site has been discovered by searching a headland between two forts already known, but obstructed by it from an interchange of signals. If any such communication really existed, it was possibly by means of fire — smoke by day, or flame by night … Several duns in both Coll and Tiree are not indeed within full view of each other, and yet in each of these cases smoke or flames might well have served as a warning from one to the other.
The objects found in the duns show how primitive were these early settlers. Unglazed patterned pottery was noted at four duns in Coll and in eleven in Tiree ; flints, holed-bones, lumps of iron slag, sling-stones and hammer-stones almost complete the list of discoveries in the dunes and sandhills. Though Tiree is more thickly populated than Coll and the duns accordingly are more likely to be interfered with, yet we are informed that the duns of Tiree are in much better preservation. This is explained by the fact that the duns are of a more massive type than those of Coll.
Nowadays, when a church is to be built, there is now and again a raised about the overchurching of a town or district. The island of Coll is twelve miles in length, and about three in breadth. Dr. Reeves, in the year 1854, wrote to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, describing eleven chapels as having formerly existed in Coll and Gunna. Tiree is slightly larger than Coll, and the average is maintained by Dr. Reeves, who cites thirteen ancient chapels in Tiree. The sculptured stones here are more numerous and of more elaborate quality than at Coll.
The illustrations in this handsome quarto are lavish and exceedingly well done. As pictured memorials of a past and present-day likenesses of places within the knowledge of many, the book has a rare value. It publication is limited to three hundred numbered copies, of which two hundred are for private issue, leaving only one hundred for ale. Mr Beveridge’s book is therefore likely to become increasingly valuable in the process of time. The bock is altogether a fine one and perfectly appointed. Mr Beveridge is no novice in the art of archaeological research, and his latest volume is the result of a systematic study rather than a mere dilettante pursuit. With regret we close this notice, which we feel is only too brief, and prompts the desire for a continuation. (Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser, 30 May 1903, p. 3)
The islands of Coll and Tiree are considerably out of the track of ordinary tourists, hence the relics and sculptured remainsof a bygone age in these islands of the Inner Hebrides have been left obscure and unnoted to a degree not accorded to similar fragments on the mainland.
The work of enumeration and classification of the duns or forts of Coll and Tirce has been undertaken by Mr Erskine Beveridge, the laird of Vallay, in North Uist who, with somewhat rare abnegation, has sought, as he says, “simply to describe what was seen, and to leave inferences alone” “A hard saying,” he comments, and yet, as an authority has expressed it, “better only describe the objects and place of finding and let philosophers see to the dates.” Scholars and philosophers, it may at once be admitted, will find much material lying to their hands in Mr Beveridge’s exhaustive and systematically expressed work. Of duns, or prehistoric forts in Coll and Tiree, it appears there are no less than sixty-one remains of various types, and apparently of a date not later than about AD 1000, “with quite a thousand years of possible earlier chronology.” Most of the duns are found close to the western shores of these islands. Mr Beveridge gives as a not unusual inference that the occupants expected their foes from seaward.
Further, the duns—more especially upon the seashore—as a rule stand in a continuous chain, each within view of the next; so notably indeed, that on several instances a fresh site has been discovered by searching a headland between two forts already known, but obstructed by it from an interchange of signals. If any such communication really existed, it was possibly by means of fire — smoke by day, or flame by night … Several duns in both Coll and Tiree are not indeed within full view of each other, and yet in each of these cases smoke or flames might well have served as a warning from one to the other.
The objects found in the duns show how primitive were these early settlers. Unglazed patterned pottery was noted at four duns in Coll and in eleven in Tiree ; flints, holed-bones, lumps of iron slag, sling-stones and hammer-stones almost complete the list of discoveries in the dunes and sandhills. Though Tiree is more thickly populated than Coll and the duns accordingly are more likely to be interfered with, yet we are informed that the duns of Tiree are in much better preservation. This is explained by the fact that the duns are of a more massive type than those of Coll.
Nowadays, when a church is to be built, there is now and again a raised about the overchurching of a town or district. The island of Coll is twelve miles in length, and about three in breadth. Dr. Reeves, in the year 1854, wrote to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, describing eleven chapels as having formerly existed in Coll and Gunna. Tiree is slightly larger than Coll, and the average is maintained by Dr. Reeves, who cites thirteen ancient chapels in Tiree. The sculptured stones here are more numerous and of more elaborate quality than at Coll.
The illustrations in this handsome quarto are lavish and exceedingly well done. As pictured memorials of a past and present-day likenesses of places within the knowledge of many, the book has a rare value. It publication is limited to three hundred numbered copies, of which two hundred are for private issue, leaving only one hundred for ale. Mr Beveridge’s book is therefore likely to become increasingly valuable in the process of time. The bock is altogether a fine one and perfectly appointed. Mr Beveridge is no novice in the art of archaeological research, and his latest volume is the result of a systematic study rather than a mere dilettante pursuit. With regret we close this notice, which we feel is only too brief, and prompts the desire for a continuation. (Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser, 30 May 1903, p. 3)
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