Beehive Dwellings

The photo is of one of the three beehive cells on the Flannan Isles. It shows hundreds of puffins flocking around the smallest cell on the island. The stones in the foreground (lower right) are the top of the largest beehive, a triple cell with an oratory chamber in the middle. 

I have been in love with these beautiful structures for thirty years; structures that are slowly falling apart, one-by one, as those years pass by. For example, in 2018 I revisited a cell I'd seen in Clar Beg (Lewis) in 1998, only to discover that it had collapsed in the intervening 20 years. I've become so enamored with these relics of times-gone-by that I started working on a book about them six years ago. It describes journeys to a hundred Hebridean cells, from Islay to North Rona. The book was published by Acair in the summer of 2021, and a Table of Contents can be found below. See the Acair website for more information: https://acairbooks.com/product/books/beehive-dwellings-of-the-hebrides/.

CONTENTS

1 Cnoc Dubh

2 Southwest Lewis

2.1 Journey to Aird Bheag

2.1.1 Airighean Tighe Dhubhastail

2.1.2 Loch an Ath Ruadh

2.1.3 Bothan Aird

2.1.4 Bothan Ura

2.1.5 Gearraidh Cleit Gruineabhat

2.1.6 Ceann Chùisil

2.1.7 Gearraidh Aineabhal

   

2.2 Journey to Fidigidh

2.2.1 Gearraidh Bheinn na Gile 

2.2.2 Gearraidh Uidh Phàil

2.2.3 Fidigidh Iochdrach

2.2.4 Both Ruadh

2.2.5 Fidigidh Uachdrach

2.2.6 Bothan Mileabhat

2.2.7 Both Cleit na Crich

2.3 Journey to Aird Mhòr

2.3.1 Both Loch na Airigh

2.3.2 Gearraidh na h-Airde Mhòire

2.3.3 Màghannan

2.3.4 Airidh a’ Loch Thaine

2.4 Loch a’ Sguair Loop

2.4.1 Tom Ni Barabhas

2.4.2 Airigh a’ Sguair

2.4.3 Gearraidh Coire Geurad

2.4.4 Gleann Marstaig

2.4.5 Airigh Creagan nam Beartan

2.5 Bo’h Hunting in Morsgail

2.5.1 Gearraidh Ascleit

2.5.2 Airigh a’ Chlàir Mhòir

2.5.3 Both a’ Chlàir Bhig

2.6 Return to Beinn a’ Bhoth

2.6.1 Beinn a’ Bhoth

2.6.2 Both a’ Ghriosamul

3 Harris & North Uist

3.1 Bothan Sròn Smearasmal

3.2 Dun Charaigearaidh

4 Inner Hebrides

4.1 Eileach an Naoimh - Garvellachs

4.2 Allt nam Bà - Islay

4.3 Port nan Urrachann - Scarba

4.4 Gleann Chàradail - Eigg

4.5 Sgòrr nam Bàn-naomha - Canna

5 Remote Outliers

5.1 Rona - Teampull Naoimh Rònain & Fianais

5.2 Sùlaisgeir - A Desert Place in the Sea

5.3 Calum Mor’s House - St Kilda

5.4 Eilean Mòr - Flannan Isles

5.5 Eilean Fir Chrothair

Appendix A: Cells Unseen

Appendix B: Essentials for Overnight Beehive Excursions

Appendix C: References