An Earth-house at Eriboll, in Sutherlandshire[112] (Fig. 257), resembles that at Clova in presenting so little curvature as to be almost straight. The curvature which it has is to the left, and only extends for a few feet within the entrance. It is said, however, to have been 10 or 12 feet longer than it was when examined in 1865. It was then 33 feet in length. It is peculiar for the smallness of its size, being nowhere more than 4½ feet in height, and for the greater part of its length only 2 feet wide, expanding to 3½ for about 3 feet only from the inner end. In view of this feature of its character, Dr Mitchell remarks that it is exceedingly difficult to see what purpose such a structure could have served; but he adds that it is worthy of note that in this district similar underground constructions are not rare, and that they are called by a Gaelic name which signifies Hiding-beds. The use of such underground places of concealment is referred to in the _Saga of Gisli the Soursop_, which relates to events occurring between the years 930 and 980, and was written in Iceland about the beginning of the twelfth century. It states that when Gisli was outlawed and every man’s hand was against him, he went to Thorgerda in Vadil “She was often wont to harbour outlaws, and she had an underground room. One end of it opened on the river-bank and the other below her hall.” Again it states that “Gisli was always in his earth-house when strangers came to the isle.”[113] The form of Earth-house thus described as then in use for concealment in Iceland is not the form of the Earth-houses found in Scotland, which have rarely two openings, but the passage is interesting because it shows that the traditional use ascribed to the Scottish examples is a use which was practised among a people who had close relations with the district in which the tradition still remains attached to these structures. ----- Footnote 112: Described by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vi. p. 249. Footnote 113: _The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw_, Dasent’s Translation, p. 72. -----