In the winter of 1961, the Commanding Officer of RAF Aird Uig and twenty-six of his officers and men were stranded in Stornoway while returning from the first night of the charity concert organised by the camp in the Town Hall.

See the full gallery here.  I was behind the mussel stand for most of it so the selection is limited this year.  If you have more pictures, feel free to send them to us.

There are no safes for breaking in the Outer Hebrides… but we didn’t go hungry in 1972.

Thanks to Donald John Macleod, Enaclete and Bridge of Don, for these memories of Enaclete during the 1940s. As a boy in Enaclete I heard many stories about the war, including the Onslow action, being discussed by Calum Iain Smith and the worthies who used to congregate at night for a ceilidh at Norman Macdonald’s (Puff’s) house, Post Office, Enaclete, and also at the Coisich’s house after the family had moved from Ungeshader. Calum Iain’s father, Donald, was one of six men from Uig who [ » read more ]

It’s time to revive the Airigh Trail, and organise some sheiling walks. We should really do an epic walk to the remote ones, as the Comann Eachdraidh did, with Finlay as guide, some years ago. The pictures are from then. Suggestions regarding this year’s walks are welcome in the comments, or leave your name if you’d like an email when the walks are organised.  We haven’t done our Morsgail-Kinresort-Harris walk yet either.  Meanwhile a detailed guide and map to all the sheilings is in the [ » read more ]

The renowned naturalist William MacGillivray was born in Aberdeen in 1796 and studied and worked most of his life there or in Edinburgh, but he had a Harris connection through his father and spent much of his childhood at Northton in South Harris (where the MacGillivray Centre now bears his name). As a young man, he returned to spend 1817-1818 there, and his diaries of that period have been published as A Hebridean Naturalist’s Journal (Acair 1996). In October of 1817 he and a party [ » read more ]

The pressmen get their snaps – Lewisfolk provide a little colour Stornoway Gazette, 21 Jan 1944 American press photographers visited the vicinity of St Pauls on Hogmanay to pick up a few colourful pictures of New Year celebrations in London. A group of Lewisfolk gave them their best ‘shots’ of the evening when Pipers Findlater and Grant accompanied some of the lads and lasses totheir stations to see them off. While waiting for the train at Tottenham Court Road and Hyde Park Corner, the pipers [ » read more ]

For next year, Uig Museum will be mounting a display of wedding and christening objects, and we’re very keen to collect any items, stories, photographs and archives connected with these events in Uig over the years.  Naturally we don’t need to take ownership of them, unless you’d like to give them a safe home – we can photograph or scan them and return them immediately.  If you have any such Uig-related items you’d like to contribute, please get in touch with Sarah or Finlay (672224); [ » read more ]

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Verses written by Norman “Conter” Macleod, am Bard Bochd and for many years headmaster at Lochcroistean, on the occasion of the marriage of Agnes Smith, Lochcroistean, to Kenny Maclennan, 15 Kneep.  It was sung at the wedding by Kenny Dan Smith, 2 Ungeshader; and the reading here is by Finlay Maciver Carishader (click the arrow). O, nach sinne fhuair an t-urram Bhon a’ chruinneig uasal bhòidheach, Thog ar cridhe le a cuireadh Bhith ‘na cuideachd aig a pòsadh. [ » read more ]

The Uig football team was top of the league in 1978. Iain Morrison 13 Mangersta (Moggan), Roderick Maclean 20 Brenish (Scratch), Iain A Maclean 5 Aird (Mac Maclean) and Donald Macdonald 22 Valtos (Domhnall Tochie) – missing John Angus Macaulay.

Piper Lorne Cousin with Sir Sean Connery at the US Library of Congress. Lorne is an Uigeach, grandson to Murdo Macleod 17 Uigen (Murchadh a Ghobha), himself a piper, and nephew to Murdo Beag.   In 2004 he toured with Madonna (Lorne, not Murdo) and has played many high-profile events. On the night of Barack Obama’s first Address to Congress on 24 February, Lorne performed along with Sandi Thom and Margaret Bennett at the US Library of Congress in Washington where a Burns Symposium was in progress.  [ » read more ]

At the Uig Celebration dinner and ceilidh on Friday, there was an Uig quiz, compiled by Teen Anne Murray. Twenty questions; this site may help you with some of them but for most, you’re on your own.  Answers in the comments please. 1. Name the oldest and youngest people currently resident in Uig. 2. Recent excavations on Cnip headland uncovered Bronze Age burials.  Approximately how old would the burials be? 3. Coming from Stornoway on the B8011, there is a hill with a prominent bump [ » read more ]

Theatre Hebrides are bringing Kinloch…Somewhere to Uig on 23 February – a one-man black comedy, written by Eric John Macdonald and starring Iain Macrae. Both are Uigeachs: Eric is well-known around Uig and Iain comes from the Miavaig Macraes. Where did it all go wrong? Brian, once TV’s idealistic young heartthrob Dr. Brodie, sits in his hotel room somewhere in the Western Isles. On the evening of another cancelled performance, he wonders what happened in the last 20 years. The once-beckoning golden future is…where? Was [ » read more ]

The winners of the MG Alba FilmG competition for short films in Gaelic have been announced, and the Uig entry, Am/Àite, got three awards:  Eric Macdonald for best screenplay and Cristin Mackenzie runner-up best performance, both in the New Entrant section, and Maggie Smith as one of the best new voices.  Meal do naidheachd! If you missed it, the film is here. The full list is on the FilmG website, where you can also watch all the entries.

Further to the Daily Express cartoon about the alien cause of the disappearing loch at Morsgail, here’s a summary of the international coverage, from the Stornoway Gazette, 29 Dec 1959. Few events in Lewis in recent years have aroused such worldwide interest as the “Morsgail Meteorite”. In addition to the planeload of British reporters, the Columbia Broadcasting system of America sent a team of cameramen to Uig to photograph the ‘hole’ for American TV, and we have received a cutting from the Bulaweyo Chronicle, which [ » read more ]