• Crofting

    The Gathering

    by  • 12 November 2008 • Crofting, History, Life in Uig, Wool & Weaving • 1 Comment

    This account of the gathering of the sheep into the Gisla fank for the clipping was written by David Henderson and first published in the Scots Magazine in August 1995.  These large-scale community gatherings are now, sadly, a thing of the past.  There are more pictures in the gallery, and of the fank at Loch [...]

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    Grievances Told to the Napier Commission

    by  • 17 September 2008 • Crofting, History, Land Issues • 1 Comment

    The Napier Commission came to Miavaig on 4 June 1883, led by Lord Napier, and took evidence from Murdo Maclean, fishcurer in Valtos, Donald Matheson Kneep and Norman Morrison Brenish, and from the Chamberlain, William Mackay. Among the grievances enumerated by the crofters were issues to do with the keeper and shooting tenants in the [...]

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    Going to the Shieling

    by  • 8 August 2008 • Archive photos, Crofting, History • 0 Comments

    From left, Emily Macdonald Gisla, Effie Maclennan 36 Cliff, and two visitors, visiting a shieling. From Emily’s Twenty Years of Hebridean Memories (1939) – observing from Gisla Lodge the girls going to the shielings at Airigh an Fhorsa and Bo Nighean Mhuirich.  The ones Emily mentioned visiting near Loch Coirgeabhat may be at Airigh an [...]

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    Peigi an Irish and Morgan

    by  • 5 August 2008 • Archive photos, Crofting • 0 Comments

    Peigi an Irish (nee Macritchie, b1890) from 8 Kneep was married twice; her first husband Murdo Mackay was killed in the Great War, and her second was Donald Matheson (Buckie) from 4 Valtos.  She was the tenant of 5 Reef, after her father.  Murdo Macdonald (Morgan, b1866) was born to 4 Kneep and took 15 Reef. Note [...]

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    Aird Uig in 1959

    by  • 16 July 2008 • Crofting, History, Land Issues • 0 Comments

      A chapter from Uig, a Hebridean Parish (1960) by Madge Phillips. The little township of Aird is an isolated and old-established crofting settlement along the western side of the steep and narrow valley of the Amhainn Gil na h-Airde three miles north of Crowlista.  After leaving Loch Meacheit, the river flows northward through a gorge [...]

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    The Sheep Year in Valtos

    by  • 17 June 2008 • Crofting, Life in Uig • 0 Comments

    In years gone by, practically all the sheep belonging to Valtos and Cliff spent the winter on the hill grazings, out as far as the Morsgail boundary, but in those days they were all hardy Blackfaces. Nowadays some people are trying for bigger fatter lambs for the mainland market, and using Texel, Cheviot or Suffolk [...]

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