Dolly Doctor wrote in Tales and Traditions of the practice of performing the t-ainmean in the upper end of Uig – evidently the last man to carry it out was a Mackinnon, grandfather of Dolly Doctor’s informant, so perhaps towards the end of the 18th century. This offering was made to a god of the sea, so that this powerful deity would send abundance of fishes close inshore where they could be caught from the rocks by rod and line. The performance of the t-ainmean [ » read more ]

David Watson was ordained as minister of Uig in 1845 but as the congregation had mostly migrated to the Free Church, his Church remained largely empty. He was at odds with the people and the estate, as the following notes in the 1851 diary (published by Acair) of the Chamberlain John Munro Mackenzie attest: Thursday 13 February Walked to the Manse of Uig and found Mr Watson busy planting potatoes and clearing his arable land of Stones with a number of men employed. Went to [ » read more ]

A letter from the Rev Alexander Macleod (formerly Established Church minister in Uig, who had taken his congregation to the Free Church in 1843 and left Uig shortly thereafter for Lochalsh) to Lady Hood, his previous patron.  See also a letter from 1824. Lochalsh 19th March 1844 My very dear and much respected friend, I had the pleasure of receiving your friendly letter in Nov. I was sorry to hear that you have been since Easter unwell but happy to learn that you have got better. [ » read more ]

After Rev Alexander Macleod and the entire congregation left the established Church in 1843 for the Free Church, the manse at Baile na Cille was vacant for nearly two years. In 1845, David Watson, a native of Croy, educated in Aberdeen, was received as a probationer and required to preach in Uig on 16 February 1845, although on account of the difficulty in obtaining a ferry from Callanish to Uig (the whole area being strongly “Free”) he preached on 4 March at the house of the [ » read more ]

by John Macleod OBE DL MA (1928-1998), of Carishader.  Published by Comann Eachdraidh Uig in 2001.  ISBN 0 903960 73 7. A detailed account of all the ministers in Uig and the significant developments and changes under their ministries from 1778 to 1929, with supporting material and documentation; in addition to the church records, it provides good wider historical and social background.  Out of print but may be consulted at the Museum and copies of particular sections can be provided by CE Uig on request.

From Emily Macdonald’s Twenty Years of Highland Memories (1939).  Before Emily was married to Dolly Doctor, she stayed at Uig Lodge as a guest of her uncle, Lord Leverhulme, along with other guests. One Sunday Mrs Strang and I decided we would like to go to the local church and hear a real Gaelic service.  Owing to domestic arrangements at the Lodge, we realised that we were half an hour late, but intended to slip in quietly at the back, as one could do in [ » read more ]

Further to the clipping from 1917 about Uig adopting summer time a year after it was officially introduced, it seems that throughout Lewis there were further difficulties with the concept. The following is from Eilean an Fhraoich of 1965, in an article looking back to 1925. Summer time had been introduced during the war but was still unobserved in rural Lewis, except by the schools. The people of Skigersta petitioned the School Management Committee not to adhere to summer time because it meant that the [ » read more ]

From Eilean an Fhraoich, December 1965 In April 1925 – a year late – the churches in Stornoway held a special service to commemorate the centenary of the coming to Uig of Rev Alexander Macleod, who, in the words of one of the speakers at the gathering, “was the first Christian minister in modern times who really brought the Gospel in its evangelical fullness to the people of this island.” But the speaker, Rev Roderick Morison, went on to emphasise that the qualification “in modern [ » read more ]