Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 21 on 10/07/2005.

This article is 37 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Those who lay beneath us

You don’t normally associate mummies – the wrapped up kind – with Scotland. But the ones at Cladh Hallan are worth investigating

Scotland goes with mummies about as well as Egypt goes with bagpipes. Traditionally, the two are most definitely mutually exclusive.

So to say that the islands of the Outer Hebrides are an unlikely place to find mummified remains would most certainly be an understatement.

The world’s most famous mummies are indeed Egyptian or South American, but they have turned up in more surprising places from time to time: throughout Asia, off Alaska, even in southwest America.

There is no record of preserved dead in Europe; and until recently, there was no reason to believe that embalming had ever been in practice here. Britain, therefore, was about as likely a site for painstakingly preserved remains as, say, the floor of the Atlantic.

When one sees the treeless, rugged landscape of the Hebridean Isle of South Uist, however, the idea doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched.

The current inhabitants of this most westerly Scottish outpost number something over 2,000, and for the most part remain quite staunchly steeped in Hebridean tradition. Gaelic remains an important influence, as does traditional music, and the community is still a crofting one.

Though certainly an attraction to visitors from all corners, the island is famous for little, and seems to like it that way. In fact, apart from being the scene of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rescue by Flora MacDonald after his escape from Culloden, Uist for the most part keeps itself to itself.

In 1988, Sheffield University’s Archaeology Departmen.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Scottish History

Page number : 28