The Butt of Lewis ( gd, Rubha Robhanais) is the most northerly point of Lewis in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...

. The

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Joh ...

, which lies in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

, is frequently battered by heavy swells and storms and is marked by the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse. The nearest populated area is the village of Eoropie, about to the south. The road to the lighthouse passes a sheltered cove called

Port Stoth Port Stoth, known locally as Stoth and pronounced ''Stow'', is a sheltered inlet just southeast of the Butt of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. It is the most northerly landing in the Outer Hebrides. A track leads down to a slipway which r ...

. Southwest from the lighthouse is a

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, Cliffed coast, coastal cliffs, Fin (geology), fins or Stac ...

called the "Eye of the Butt" ( gd, Sùil an Rubha). It is claimed that the Butt of Lewis is one of the windiest locations in the United Kingdom.

Lighthouse

The Butt of Lewis Lighthouse was built by the famous lighthouse builder David Stevenson in 1862. Other sources include

Thomas Stevenson Thomas Stevenson PRSE MInstCE FRSSA FSAScot (22 July 1818 – 8 May 1887) was a pioneering Scottish civil engineer, lighthouse designer and meteorologist, who designed over thirty lighthouses in and around Scotland, as well as the Stevenson ...

as one of the builders too. Little is known of the station's early history. A plaque in the lightroom indicates that the present equipment was installed in 1905. The station became the radio link for the keepers on the isolated Flannan Islands in the early 1930s, and continued to function as such until 1971, when the Flannans was made automatic. The light was most-likely fuelled by fish oil in the beginning. This was then replaced by a paraffin burner in 1869 and finally by electricity in 1976. It was operated by three Keepers who lived at the Station with their families but the fog signal was discontinued on 31 March 1995 and the light was automated on 30 March 1998. It is now remotely monitored from Edinburgh. Until the early 1960s, all supplies were delivered by sea because of the poor road system on the island. This would occur at the nearby Port Stoth, where small cargo vessels would regularly berth if the weather allowed it to offload provisions for the lighthouse station. The Butt of Lewis is also one the General Lighthouse Authorities transmitting stations for Differential GPS.

Eilean nan Luchruban

One kilometre south-west of the Butt is a

stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...

, or small island, of Eilean nan Luchruban, also known as the Pygmies' Isle. The isle was first mentioned by Dean Munro in about 1549 and described as being a ‘kirk’ where

pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

were buried. There are several structures on the island and earlier historical records mention bones in the structures. It was excavated by antiquarians sometime before 1905, when bones and pottery were found. The bones were found to be from animals and the pottery was later found to be from the Neolithic period. RCAHMS surveyed the isle in 1928 and found part of the structures had collapsed since the excavations. A survey in 2005 found some additional structures not mentioned by the earlier sources.

Name

The name is derived from ''Lusbirdan/Luspardan'' which, in both Gaelic and Scots, means "pigmy". It is thought that it is derived from ''Lug/i-npiorad'', which means "little spirit". In Blaeu's map, the name of the isle is ''Ylen Dunibeg'' ("Island of the Little Men").

Images

File:Butt of Lewis Lighthouse (33888546188).jpg File:Butt of Lewis.jpg File:Lighthouse, Butt of Lewis.JPG File:Butt of Lewis.png File:Butt of Lewis Lighthouse - geograph.org.uk - 1961546.jpg

References

{{Lewis and Harris Isle of Lewis Landforms of the Outer Hebrides Headlands of Scotland Natural arches of Scotland