Pobull Fhinn

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Pobull Fhinn, spelt sometimes as "Poball Fhinn," "Pobul Fhinn," or "Pobuill Fhinn," is a stone circle on the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. This Gaelic name can be translated into English as "Finn's People," "Fingal's People," or "the White People." It is sometimes known locally as "Sornach Coir' Fhinn," or "the ring of Fingal's Furnace." The name is derived from the legendary hero Fionn mac Cumhaill.

Of the several stone circles on the island, Pobull Fhinn is the most conspicuous. It is located on the south side of Ben Langass, and it possibly dates from the second millennium BC.^[1] It is technically an oval rather than a circle, measuring about 120 feet from east to west and 93 feet from north to south. Although situated on a natural plateau, the north side of the enclosed area has been excavated to about four feet. At least two dozen stones can be counted, some eight on the northern half and 16 on the southern half, but parts of the cirle are devoid of stones. About four feet within the circle at the east side is a tall single stone, and there are two fallen slabs about seven feet beyond the western edge.

Pobull Fhinn is located at grid reference NF 8427 6502 57°33′52″N 7°16′57″W / 57.56444, -7.2825. It can be reached from a footpath beginning near the Langass Lodge Hotel. Alternatively, it can be reached from the footpath to Barpa Langass that starts from the A867 about five miles southwest of Lochmaddy; Barpa Langass is a 0.75-mile walk up Ben Langass from Pobull Fhinn. The jagged shapes of the stones silhouetted against Loch Langass, Loch Eport, and Eaval make Pobull Fhinn one of the most visited and most photographed sites on North Uist.

[edit] Sources

• Beveridge, Erskine (1911). North Uist. Edinburgh: William Brown & Co., 259-60. 
• Thom, A. (1967). Megalithic Sites in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 131-33.