Modern Discovery
The chessmen were discovered in early 1831 in a sand bank at the head of Camas Uig on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There are various local stories concerning their arrival and modern discovery on Lewis.
Malcolm "Sport" Macleod from the nearby township of Pennydonald discovered the trove in a small stone kist in a dune, exhibited them briefly in his byre and sold them on to Captain Roderick Ryrie. One reported detail, that it was a cow that actually unearthed the stash, is generally discounted in Uig as fabrication. Malcolm Macleod's family were evicted from Pennydonald several years later when the area was cleared to make the farm at Ardroil.
Read more about this topic: Lewis Chessmen
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or discovery:
“The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)