PLATE II.
Fig. 8.Fig. 9.
"It is of a bee-hive form, about 18 feet in diameter, 9 feet high, andcovered with green turf outside."Dwelling and Dairy joined, "of the usual bee-hive shape, and green withthe growing turf." Dairy "6 feet square on floor, but roundishexternally."
a a. doors; 3 feet high, "higher and better formed than is usual."
b. fireplace (having a chimney above, which is exceptional).
c. row of stones marking off d.
d. bed on floor.
e e e. small recesses in wall.		a. doorway; "easily closed with a creel, a bundle of heather, or astraw mat."
b. "a very low interior doorway."
c. doorway of dairy.
d. fireplace; "the smoke escaping through a hole in the apex of thedome.
e. "the usual row of stones."
f. "a litter of hay and rushes for a bed."
g. niches in wall.
i j k l. various utensils.

[Plate II.]—Bee-Hive Houses at Uig, Lewis.

(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]

[72] Op. cit., p. 161.

[73] The Past in the Present, p. 60.