The Congested Districts Board took an interest in poultry farming in the crofting parishes and in 1908 a Commission proceeded around Scotland taking evidence from many involved in the trade. On 22 July of that year they were in Uig, interviewing Mr & Mrs Duncan Maclean of Gisla Farm.
Read more →Martin Martin, in his Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1695) gives an account of the use made of the Flannan Isles at the time and the superstitions that attended a visit: “The inhabitants of the adjacent lands of the Lewis, having a right to these islands, visit them once every summer, and there make a great purchase of fowls, eggs, down, feathers, and quills…”
Read more →Donald John Macleod was brought up in Enaclete during the war. He recalls the shops, grocery vans and buses that were the source of ample provisions, news and craic at the time.
Read more →receipt from Cyril Goodge (petrol and provisions at Miavaig) for the Free Presbyterian Manse, date 13 September 1939 – the day after the induction of Rev John Angus Macdonald as FP minister in Uig, so presumably he is setting out his kitchen. It’s also just a few days after the start of the war. Rationing began in January 1940.
Read more →RAF Corporal Technician Pete Davis and his wife Hilary spend the first 18 months of their married life Lewis after he was stationed to RAF Aird Uig. They lived in Linshader and Aird. This is an engaging account of their time in Uig.
Read more →There are no safes for breaking in the Outer Hebrides, but there’s treasure more worth lifting in the crofter’s huge deep freeze. A verse from the Stornoway Gazette: we didn’t go hungry in 1972.
Read more →After the end of the Great War, dangerous materials were still washing up on the beach. All credit to Nurse Maclean for her tender care of Murdo Macleod, Cliff, in 1919.
Read more →[singlepic=1083,387] Abhainn Dearg, the new whisky from Uig, will not be whisky until 2011 but thanks to the intrepid Leodhaisiach Mike Donald and his colleagues, a small cask of the new spirit is lying cosseted in a cellar in Glasgow. MacSorley’s Music Bar on Jamaica Street will be the venue for a tasting of the [...]
Read more →[singlepic=1077,280,left]Dr Duncan Maclennan served as the doctor in West Uig from 1935 to 1945. A native of Stornoway, he studied at Aberdeen and Uig was his first post. He was greatly liked throughout the district, as this piece from the Stornoway Gazette on the occasion of his leaving demonstrates: 20 July 1945 On Tuesday, 3rd July, in Crowlista [...]
Read more →Winter was always a difficult time for the inhabitants of St Kilda, but the winter of 1876-77 was unusual. From the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 1878: When the factor, Mr M’Kenzie, with MacLeod’s vessel, did not put in an appearance in autumn last year [1876], as usual, the inhabitants at [...]
Read more →As Hiort Weekend continues, here’s a piece contributed by Alasdair Shearer (Aird/Australia) from the Celtic Magazine. The BBC programme An t-Hiortach, about the last surviving evacuee Norman Gillies and his return visit to the island, is available on the iPlayer now (UK only and until 5 Sept), and for those who get BBC Alba, there [...]
Read more →Lewsiana (W Anderson Smith, 1874/1896) gives this little titbit. Before we leave the family blinking round the peat fire, telling interminable tales or crooning never-ending songs, we will introduce the reader to a favourite bonne bouche. Take two eggs, with a little butter and meal, whip them all well up together, and place on the [...]
Read more →From Mary Beith’s Deanamh a’ Leighis column in the West Highland Free Press, 3 October 2008. The ballan, a cow’s horn used for cupping against the skin to draw out impurities and cure sciatica and rheumatism, was well known in Lewis and continued into living memory. One such ballan used in Lochaber was described by [...]
Read more →Another bit from DDC Pochin Mould’s West Over Sea, published in 1953; at the time even quite substantial and central townships like Geshader were just getting their proper roads. Crossing the moor between Loch Raonasgail and the yellow road by the sea at Uig, I had plenty of opportunity to consider living without roads. Probably [...]
Read more →St Kilda is not in the parish of Uig but we can see it from coast around the upper end of the district, and boat trips run there from Miavaig on the Cuma and with Seatrek, so we take an interest in it. The following is from the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of [...]
Read more →From Lewsiana, W Anderson Smith, 1874-86. (See also the previous extract.) Dog fish (Spinax) kept for a short time and half dried, like the skate without salt, is by some considered a tit-bit, by others of more delicate stomach eaten for lack of something more tasty. Perhaps desire for revenge for the ravages committed on [...]
Read more →From Lewsiana, by W Anderson Smith (J&R Parlane, Paisley 1874-1886). Let us first consider in detail the domestic arrangements in the hands of the women, and trace in order the results of their industry, which is untiring, if not always regulated to the best advantage. As soon as the family is astir in the morning, [...]
Read more →[singlepic=585,426] Annie Maclean, Nurse Ruadh, was born to 12 Crowlista in 1872 and served as district nurse in Uig before taking up the post in Tarbert, where she worked until her death in 1940, and was much loved. The following is from the Stornoway Gazette: It was with deep regret that we learned of the [...]
Read more →The Macdonald Triplets (John, William Faulkner and Catherine), shown here with Nurse Maclean, were born in December 1934 at 11 Geshader to John Macdonald (the Lion) and Katie Mary nee Macleod – a great event in Uig at the time.
Read more →Mealista Island (on the right) from above Molinish, with Scarp in the distance. From “Various Superstitions in the North-West Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Especially in Relation to Lunacy” by Arthur Mitchell AM MD, Deputy Commissioner for Lunacy in Scotland, Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. From the Proceedings of the Society of [...]
Read more →