The Scottish islands have played a role in the development of Scottish archaeology that seems disproportionate to the size of the islands. The archaeology of the islands is often considered to exemplify Scottish archaeology much to the annoyance of archaeologists working on the mainland where the archaeology is very different. This is particularly the case with Orkney where the archaeological record is exceptional in many ways and where the history of exploration has been extensive, but the Hebrides have also made a major contribution and one which has perhaps been overlooked. In this paper, I propose to give a brief introduction to the archaeology of the southern Outer Hebrides. The region has had an episodic record of archaeological interventions which includes work by some important figures in the history of Scottish archaeology and it has played a surprisingly significant role in some key archaeological debates and developments such as the nature of brochs, the distribution of chambered cairns, the early development of rescue archaeology, and the problem of unpublished archaeological backlogs.