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In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Great and Little Bernera like this:
Bernera, Large and Little, two islands of Uig parish, Outer Hebrides, Ross-shire, in Loch Roag, on the W of Lewis, 23 miles W of Stornoway. Large Bernera measures 55/8 miles from NW to SE, and from 1¼ to 3¼ miles from E to W; has a jagged outline, with alternations of bays and headlands; and is surrounded by an archipelago of islets. ...
Inland the surface, sown with over 30 lochs, nowhere exceeds 223 feet above sea-level. A remarkable assemblage of ancient standing stones, rivalling those of Callernish, crowns the brow of one of its promontories, and looks in the distance like a cemetery of thickly clustered tombstones. The allignment of it resembles that of a Roman cross, with a circle at the intersection; and is computed to have originally measured about 680 feet along the main line, over 204 along the transverse line, and 189 round the periphery of the circle. Thirty-six stones are still standing in some or other of its several parts; but numerous others lie prostrate in positions showing them to have been formerly erect, while a good many more are presumed to have been destroyed; and all those still on ground are, more or less, of a megalithic character. Another stone circle now incomplete, and still another with a double oval row, are in the neighbourhood of the great cruciform assemblage; but they consist of much smaller stones. Pop. of Large Bernera (1861) 453, (1871)539, (1881) 563. Little Bernera is a mere islet (1¼# ¾ mile) lying to the NW of Large Bernera.—Ord. Sur., shs. 104,105,1858.
Great and Little Bernera is now part of NA H EILEANAN AN IAR Council. Click here for graphs and data of how NA H EILEANAN AN IAR has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Great and Little Bernera itself, go to Statistics.
How to reference this page:
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Great and Little Bernera, in Na H Eileanan An Iar and Ross and Cromarty | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21773
Date accessed: 08th April 2026
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