Stornoway Gazette
10 January 1961

Meanwhile we are grateful to George Moody, who as a Nicolson maths teacher was instrumental in getting the centre going, for a pile of photos and documents from the early years. For starters, here’s a quote from the Handbook (1974/1977):

The centre can obviously be used for engagement in ‘Outward Bound’ type activities by pupils. It can, however, be used by younger pupils as a facility for their staying together for a few days in novel surroundings and for them to experience being away from hme possibly for the first time.

Camping and allied skills can be carried out very close to the centre, close enough for young pupils to be taken in to the centre itself should weather conditions so dictate.

One function of the centre is to enable all users to become familiar with settings other than their own, to et first-hand knowledge of villages such as Valtos and Kneep, to collect shells from Traigh na Beria and rocks from Glen Valtos, to undertake trips to Uig sands (Lewis Chessmen) and the cliffs and stacs at Mangersta and to link up with the tales of old Uig as found in Dr Macdonald’s book [Tales and Traditions of the Lews] and in the Morison Manuscripts.

All users of the centre are entitled to purchase a badge especially designed for the centre. These may be obtained from the Caretaker, price 50p.

A description of the badge is:-

1. The main impression is one of sea and sky hence the blue and white predominance in the badge.

2. The stars represent route finding and remind us to ‘look upwards’ and be ever aware of the wonder of nature all around.

3. The upper red segment symbolises the beauty of the sunsets of the Western Seas.

4. The three yellow canoes are symbolic of the physical activities possible from the centre.

5. The whole red disc is emblematic of the full cycle of educational experience and the warm circle of friendship which, we trust, will be forged by all who use the Valtos Centre.

The Caretaker was Shonnie Buchanan – I don’t suppose he has any badges to sell you now but if you have one, and spent some of your youth at the Valtos Centre, please leave a comment. The photos will follow and we’ll be happy to have some further contributions too.

The Parish of Rieff is an extensive Parish on the West Side of the Island of Lewis. I do not know exactly the number of the population of the parish, but the new church that was built some time before the disruption¹ was seated for 1,000 people and I am sure I saw in that same church on different occasions, listening to hear the glad tidings of the Gospel, upwards of 12 hundred people [...]

When I was born, and for the period of 23 years after, the whole inhabitants of the parish were sunk in dark ignorance of God. There was not so much as a form of Godliness in the whole place. Wickedness of all descriptions committed in broad daylight. There was no person to testify against the abominations committed in the land, ‘like priest, like people.’ The worship of God was not kept in any family, lamentable to think of all this.

The Minister² was ignorant of the Gospel and of the nature of true Godliness and therefore could not impart to others that Gospel of which he was not made a partaker himself, by the teaching of the Spirit of God in his own soul. The name of Christ was not to be heard in his sermons. He would tell the few that did go to church³ that he had good news to tell them. That the British Army gained in the battle on their enemies and that was great matter of thankfulness. Such was the ignorance of the people that they believed all that the Minister said as an oracle. When any children were to be baptised, the ceremony was performed in one of the Tennants’ houses. A good number of friends would meet there on the Sabbath evening or on a weekday. After the children were baptised, the Bottle and the Horn (an adhairc dhrama) was put on the table and for courtesy’s sake the health of the Minister and the newly baptised child or children was drunk all round about and the evening was spent in this way. But here I may observe that, as far as I know, and the accounts that I heard from others about the man, that the Minister was not a drunkard himself although the practice was very general in the Parish.

When the Sacrament of the Supper was dispensed in the Parish, every sinner was made welcome to come and partake of the Lord’s Supper. I understand that it was a general practice to have plenty of whisky provided on that occasion and to go from the Table of the drunkard to the Table of the Lord, and in that way profaning the Holy Ordinance of our Blessed Lord, and hardening sinners in their unconverted state, and encouraging them in their wicked career from day to day. Not a word of prayer in the families of these people after coming home on Sabbath evening. The Sabbath was almost in a level with any other day of the week. The Minister did not preach the great need of a man being born again. Gross darkness and gross ignorance overshadowed the whole land at this moment. [...]

It was my Father’s practice on Sabbath morn to bring all the children to the Barn and he would make us all go on our knees around him. He would pray with us there for some time. Again, before he would go to bed on Sabbath night, he would do the same, but not on week days. When any person was sick they would send word to my dear Father to go and pray with the sick person, and this was all the Godliness that was amongst the people.

It was the general practice in these dark days of ignorance and superstition, as soon as the Harvest was done, to engage a Piper or a Fiddler for dancing. Balls and rioting on each Farm once a week.  There the young men and women met for the better promotion of the Kingdom of the Devil. I was mad for dancing. Oh, Lord, I am ashamed of this wickedness and madness which I have committed in thy sight. Pardon mine iniquity for it is very great.

Compare to Rev Alexander Macleod’s letter of 1824 on a similar subject. Don’t worry; things get better.

¹Baile na Cille Church was built in 1829, in the throes of revival, to hold a thousand.
²Hugh Munro, Minister in Uig 1778 to 1823
³The old thatched church near Baile na Cille Cemetery.

The (still unnamed) Uig Walking Group went out on Saturday in fine weather – to Suainebhat and out the peat road. The next outing is Saturday 19 February to Carnish, round the old village and out to the beaches, with an option extension on rougher ground along the coast towards Mangersta. Meet at 11am in the middle of the village. All welcome, and keep an eye on the walks page if you’d like to join a future walk. (We may get some walking maps uploaded there later.)

Bonfire at Crowlista School, circa 1950. Tonight is also bonfire night! Pictures to follow.

Snow disrupts transport

R.A.F., Aird, Uig, almost had to move its address to Stornoway this week. The Commanding Officer and twenty-six of his officers and men were stranded there early on Tuesday morning while returning from the first night of the charity concert organised by the camp in Stornoway Town Hall. Half of the party got back to Stornoway on Tuesday night. The remainder came on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday morning a truck with bread supplies and a party of men aboard left to make its way back to camp.

After a successful first night, the cast, a number of “liberty men” who had been over to see the performance, and at least one unfortunate who had just come off the steamer, left Stornoway by bus, while the C.O., Squadron Leader G. Ware, went ahead by car. It was snowing heavily, but the convoy got as far as Achmore before the Squadron Leader’s car went off the road. The bus party helped to get it back on the road again, but when they tried to move off themselves, ended in the same snowdrift. The leading car continued for some way before finally going off the road.

All-Night Teas

It was dark, the snowstorm was being turned into a blizzard by a strong wind, and there seemed to be no hope of getting the bus out. After some time, a party from the bus made their way to the Post Office house, where Mr and Mrs Fallon took them in. By the time the whole busload was gathered indoors (two hours later when the cold had impressed on everybody that the bus was no place to spend the night) the Fallons had 24 visitors to accommodate. Mr Fallon himself kept an all night tea-making service going, and in the morning he and his wife did their best to feed them.

For the whole of Tuesday the party tried to get the bus to move in the right direction, which was now back to Stornoway. “We took votes all day, and every time the boys said ‘Let’s go on with the concert’,” said J.T. Chisholm Macrae.

Many manoeuvres later, when the bus was off the road for the fifth time, a rescue party from Aird Uig arrived. They had left early in the morning – fifteen men with spades in a truck fitted with a snowplough, and they had already to dig themselves out at Eneclet and Garynahine. It was five o’ clock and growing dark, and it was decided to leave the bus, transfer as many of the cast as possible to the truck and try to get to Stornoway in time for the concert.

This seemed quite feasible especially since the County snowplough had just gone through Achmore, but the final stroke of bad luck hit them when their own snowplough broke down.  It was then that the decision to cancel the concert had to be taken. Eventually twenty men managed to get into Stornoway while the other half of the party was billeted in Achmore. Those who got into Stornoway ran to the dance which was planned to follow the concert. Weather conditions were still such that few people turned up.

Food and Warmth

Flight Lieutenant Neil Maclellan, listing those who had helped himself and the other men stranded in Achmore, put Mr and Mrs Fallon on top of the list, with Mr Mackay, 21 Achmore, and other unknown householders who had fed them during the day when cold, hunger and tiredness threatened their cheerfulness. Mrs Mackay, No. 6 had also helped by taking six of the men left behind on Tuesday in for the night. Stornoway hotelkeepers and landladies also came in for praise for their help in ensuring a night’s rest for those who reached the town. Capt. and Mrs Perrins had helped by feeding and warming the rescue party. Squadron Leader Ware gave his “very profound thanks on behalf of everybody” for all the kindness shown to himself and his men.

The drive who volunteered to bring the party into town in the first place, and spend Tuesday behind the wheel in his white shirt and black bow tie, as he had appeared on the stage the previous night, was S.A.C. Ted Stockdale who got high praise for his efforts and linked with him was “John Angus” the station’s civilian driver, who brought the snowplough through.

It is impossible to run a substitute “second night”, because members of the concert cast will be going on Christmas leave, and in some cases have had postings to other stations deferred for the concert and are now past their deadline. Nicolson’s and Smith’s the stationers who were acting as ticket agents, will refund money to those who return their tickets.

Among the people stranded on Monday night was Calum Macdonald, the gamekeeper at Morsgail, who spent the night in his van and in the morning walked to Garynahine Lodge. Later Capt. Perrins and some helpers set off with him in a Land Rover and got himself and his vehicle safely to Morsgail.

There was a more comfortable stranding for the driver of Mitchell’s Harris bus. He did not venture beyond Tarbert on his return journey on Monday, a wise precaution since the Harris road, particularly at Marig, was in a very bad shape.

One vehicle which did not simply slide off the road, as most others did, was a Board of Agriculture lorry, which ended upside down in a ditch in Balallan. The driver was not injured.

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.

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 had served in WW1 on the auxiliary cruiser HMS Orama at the Battle of the Falklands.  He was a very quiet man but on Hogmanay he sometimes sang a song about the Orama and the Falklands, but I have never heard anyone else singing it. I wonder if anyone has the words of this song?

Puff’s house was one of two houses in our village with a radio and most nights there were people from Enaclete, Ungeshader, Geshader and sometimes further afield who would visit the house for a ceilidh, listen to the BBC 9 o’clock news and wait the arrival of the Uig bus. Uig had three buses then, MacRitchie’s, Buchanan’s and MacAulay’s, all of which on their journeys to and from Stornoway would stop at the Macdonalds’ house.

The ferry sailings from Kyle to Stornoway were at that time staggered to prevent U-boats shadowing and sinking the Lochness and consequently nobody knew when the boat, and therefore the bus meeting it, would arrive. People often waited into the wee small hours and when the bus eventually arrived there was great hilarity and a hearty welcome for the servicemen coming home on leave. Today this house lies empty and my thoughts often return to the days of laughter, jokes, stories, leg-pulling and bonhomie. Next to the Post Office was a shop and a paraffin storage tank and it was very busy place with cars, buses, lorries and people on cycles and on foot coming and going all day long; indeed the area could be described as the Piccadilly of Uig.

Norman’s son John was a Quartermaster in the Merchant Navy and when he returned from the sea he used to bring me comics from New York. These American comics were full of dragons and monsters and sometimes they scared the living daylights out of me when I read them by the fire with the light from a peat.

©DJ Macleod