Sounding more like a mercenary from Star Wars than an archaeological site, Barpa Langass is, in fact, a Neolithic Chambered tomb located in North Uist.
Barpa Langass is classified as a Hebridean styled roundcairn which are defined by their simple, round form, slightly pronounced funnel entrances, narrow entrance passages and simple chambers. The earliest of these chambered cairns incorporate circles of upright stones known as peristaliths. These stones wrap around the cairns creating a stone circle. Virtually none of these sites have been excavated in modern times and therefore we know very little about them.
The internal passageway and chamber were seemingly remodelled in antiquity, probably after a collapse. However, the site has also suffered considerable disturbance over the last 200 years. In the late nineteenth century, a second chamber was said to be accessible by a passage from the north side. By 1970 this chamber was no longer visible.
Up until recently, Barpa Langass was famously the best preserved Hebridean cairn in Scotland and the only example of a Neolithic tomb in the Western Isles where the chamber was still intact and accessible. However, around 2011, a partial collapse of stone including one of the principal lintels within the passageway has caused considerable damage to the site.
Finds unearthed by antiquarian Erskine Beveridge in around 1907 are now in the National Museum of Scotland and include Beaker and Iron Age sherds, as well as a few flints, a barbed and tanged arrowhead and burnt bone (possibly human).
If you are interested in studying archaeology in the Western Isles, then you can complete access, undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Lews Castle College UHI as part of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute. See the UHI website or contact us at studyarchaeology@uhi.ac.uk
