An account of the cattle sales at Ardroil from the People’s Journal, 27 September 1958. In the Outer Isles the folk who make their living off the land can’t come to the market. So the market goes to them.  And the cattle sales may well decide whether the crofter and his family have a good year or a bad year.

Chrissie Matheson 2 Ardroil, and Chirsty Bell, Scoddaidh Mor and Scoddaidh Beag, 5 Ardroil, with Suainebhal behind.

A very unseasonable picture:  a party from Reef, out at Strome for peats in fine weather.  Angus Mackay (an Gagan), James Morrison (Seumas Mhurchaidh Seumais), Christina Mackay, Peggy Macritchie (Peggy an Irish) and Murdo Macdonald (Morgan).

Stornoway Gazette, 6 October 1939 West Uig, along with other parts of the Island, has contributed its quota to the fighting forces, both army and navy.  Being on the Atlantic Seaboard, much interest is taken in all surface craft observed, and much speculation as to their intentions is rife.  More interest, however, is taken in the very unusual appearance of any aircraft and, so, considerable apprehension was blended with interest one day last week when an aircraft was first heard and then seen rapidly approaching [ » read more ]

Stornoway Gazette, 17 May 1940 Some of the people of Crowlista were the spectators of a very unusual sight last Tuesday.  While the 1pm news was being broadcast, a sheep belonging to Angus Matheson was labouring to give birth to quadruplets.  We regret that two of the lambs were dead on being delivered but the other two are doing well.  Triplest are rarely seen here and so far as we know this is the only instance of quadruplet lambs within living memory.  This sheep dropped [ » read more ]

Shonnie Goravig, John Maclean, 3 Ungeshader, who we talked about here.

The cause of my sadness is the mill’s decline, Not getting what I need for my baking. -Calum Ruairidh Bhàin (Calum Mackay, Bragar) The Norse Mills of Lewis by Dr Finlay Macleod (Acair, 2009) is surely the most comprehensive volume imaginable on our horizontal mills – including their construction and use, context in world history, references in bàrdachd, photos and a complete (?) annotated list of all known mills on the Island.  Uig has the greatest concentration.  An exhibition of Dr Finlay’s research opens in [ » read more ]

From Lewsiana, by W Anderson Smith (1874, 1896). During the autumn and winter the grain is prepared at leisure as potatoes are first consumed, or nearly so, before the meal is much run upon. When in urgent need of meal, the grain is sometimes dried in an iron pot on the fire, and then taken to the quern or hand mill, where, however, a great quantity is necessarily lost, from the difficulty of collecting it as it issues from between the stones. This meal is [ » read more ]

Peigi Eiric Smith, Chirsty Ann Macarthur, Mary and Sandy Smith, in Kneep.

Left, Mairead Macdonald (8 Kneep) and right, her sister Chirsty Ann (Ciorstaidh Anna a’Phurpois) at the shieling at Gearraidh Thodail.  The shieling is at NB095290, between Suainebhal and Direadh Beinn, and the Comann Eachdraidh visited it last summer – see pictures. Chirsty Ann was born in 1912 and so this was taken about 1930.  Note the turf roof, patched with an old sail.  The tin vessels were made by the tinkers who resided during the season in Glen Valtos.  The girls hold a quart jug [ » read more ]

Another extract from Uig, A Hebridean Parish, compiled by HA Moisley and members of the Geographical Field Group, Universities of Glasgow and Nottingham.  This section was written by Pamela M Gough; see also the further detail on life in the townships. Soils are generally deep, and there are few rocky outcrops on the crofts which are fairly level.  In Brenish and Islivig, the soils are mainly peaty, becoming wetter in the west.  Where visible the subsoil is gravel or stony boulder clay.  In Mangersta the [ » read more ]

From Uig, A Hebridean Parish, 1960. The photo of Brenish is by Sam Forrest, taken on land court business in 1965. More of his pictures in the gallery. Brenish has a south-westerly aspect whilst Islivig faces north-west; in both the elevation of the crofts decreases seawards from about 125 ft in the east to 50-25 ft in the west. Only on croft in Islivig, and the eight most southerly crofts in Brenish, run to the sea – the rest obtain some shelter from a line [ » read more ]

From Uig, A Hebridean Parish, by HA Moisley and the Geographical Field Group, 1960. The crofting population of Uig started the second half of the nineteenth century with far less land than had been occupied by their forebears fifty years before, and, although famine, clearance and emigration had slightly reduced the population between 1841 and 1861 (from 3828 to 3630) thereafter it again increased, reaching 4600 in 1891.  Rising agricultural prices after 1850 favoured farmers and crofters alike but, whilst the farmers prospered, the crofters [ » read more ]

On 4 June 1883 the Napier Commission, chaired by Lord Napier, was in Miavaig to take evidence from crofters and others on issues surround land management and tenancy.  Among those interviewed was Norman Morrison, crofter and fisherman at Brenish, aged 61, who stated he had two milk cows, three young beasts, between fifteen and twenty sheep, and no horse, on a croft which he shared with his brother, who kept similar stock.  The following is slightly abridged. Have you been fairly elected a delgate by the [ » read more ]