A letter from Dr Macdonald of Gisla and Stornoway to another great Uig historian, Murdo Macleod (Murchadh Chaluim Sheoras, Crowlista and Glasgow). Dolly Doctor was at the time collecting objects and money for a folk museum, which didn’t happen before he died in 1961 but did supply Museum nan Eilean.

24/2/60
22 New Street
Stornoway
Isle of Lewis

Dear Murdo

At last I managed to find the negative of the Castle of the Macleods and have got prints made from it by the people who make my slides. I am sending you one of these prints – you can go into a photographers and get the picture enlarged to any size you fancy but you should ask the price first. You know that Seaforth fortified the castle in support of Charles II about 1962 & in defiance of Cromwell. He sent a company of soldiers from Inverness & they occupied Stornoway & buildt a garrison fort where the Custom House now stands. They left the Macleod Castle but in 1654 before leaving to go back to England under Genl Monk they blew up the castle leaving only a part of the walls & the tower. This was its condition up till 1882 when the stones of the tower & old castle were built into the foundations of No. 1 Pier. Provost Rodk Smith when a boy used to play in the ruins of the Old Castle during the big ebbs at spring tides. There were ‘clachan sinnteag’, a causeway of stepping to get to Castle at low tide but at flood the Castle was completely surrounded by water. The history of Siol Torcuill revolves round the Castle & many gruesome tales are told of what happened through the ages. Since writing you my brother Willie who used to be at Uig Lodge & was living in Stockport Lancashire dropped down dead. It was a terrible shock to his family & to us. I carry on with my Old Folks Association each Wedy. The fund for the Museum is at a standstill £1543 – we will have to do something about getting more funds soon. I am a prisoner upstairs in my room with all this ice & snow. I hope it goes soon for I cannot walk any distance now even with my two sticks. I think your story will appear in the next issue of Gairm. Tha mi an am pian agus ann an cabhaig agus seo e chun a phosta.

Le na beannachdan is gile ghuit fhein.

DD

We’ve been recording the abundant pew graffiti in Baile na Cille church – it’s a common phenomenon, evidently. Here’s John Macleod, Banner in the West (Birlinn 2008, p 283):

Island churches are still immune from vandalism (with some notable lapses in 1900) but there is a venerable tradition of scrawling initials, dates and even little pictures on the church pew, a diversion all the more readily accomplished in the days before electric lighting. The pews of Shawbost Free Church are replete with such memorials from the 1920s and beyond, though the odds of ever identifying an ‘MM 1934′ or a ‘JMcL’ are passingly remote. I had not long occupied my present pew in Stornoway when I noticed the immaculate sketch of an Imperial German officer, over the neatly printed ‘BOSCH 1918′. But who drew it we cannot now know, and it is unlikely he survives.

MacDonald’s take on this is interesting. ‘These graffiti are not very controversial. They do not “adorn in order to desecrate”… rather they are a powerful reminder that the space of worship belongs to the congregation, purchased by their tithes and, in some cases, actually built with their labour. Graffiti must be interpreted as proprietorial statements: this is our space. Accordingly, these are very Presbyterian transgressions, breaches of etiquette which affirm the ultimate authority of pew over pulpit.’

The MacDonald quote is from Towards a Spacial Theory of Worship: Some observances from Presbyterian Scotland, by Fraser MacDonald, Social and Cultural Geography, Vol 3 No 1, 2002.

Clearly this isn’t unique to island churches; if you have other examples, please share them. One of the most famous instances in Scotland is the names of the ‘Wicked Generation’ of Glencalvie, who camped in the churchyard at Croick in Sutherland in 1845 when they were cleared, and scratched their names on the windows.

See more of our graffiti here.

One of the popular schemes of the Congested Districts Board (1898-1912) was the provision of bulls, rams and stallions, on loan, to crofting parishes where the stock was in need of improvement. This wasn’t the first attempt to improve stock with the introduction of bulls: evidently Sir James Matheson spent £1200 doing the same, during his time as Proprietor of the island.  From 1898, the Board issued an annual notice regarding the scheme, of which this is a typical example:

The Congested Districts Board are prepared to supply a limited number of bulls for use in Townships or Districts in Congested Parishes, and Crofters’ Common Grazings Committees desirous of making application for these animals should now do so.

All applications by these Committees must be made on printed forms, of which copies may be obtained on application from the Secretary of the Board.

It is essential that applications be in the hands of the Secretary before 27th January 1901.

It must be distinctly understood that the Committee will be responsible for any damage done by a bull while in their custody; also, that all expenses in connection with the wintering of the bulls shall be paid by the recipients, who must, in every case, make satisfactory arrangements for the keep of bulls during the winter following each service season, until the Board removes the bull in ordinary course of their arragements.

The bulls will remain the property of the Board.

RR MacGregor
Secretary

6 Parliament Square, Edinburgh, 3 Dec 1901

The Board was supplying Highland bulls in the west, Shorthorn or Polled Angus in the north, according to the preference of the crofters. In 1900-01, for instance, 45 bulls were sent out, 34 Highland to Tiree, Skye, the Western Isles, Wester Ross and Sutherland, and 8 Polled Angus and 3 Shorthorn to Caithness, Orkney and Shetland. The demand was greater than the amount the Board could supply and they were obliged to judge where their bulls would be of best use. In 1904, the progress to date was reported, including some Uig dispatches:

Aird: Supplied first in 1899. Cattle small and badly bred. The people have paid some attention to the gets of the bulls and kept a good many of them. Their young cattle are much improved in every respect. They have a second bull now.

Callanish: Supplied in 1902. Cattle very small and badly bred. They have kept very few of the gets of the bull. Those they have are a wonderful improvement on the old stock, having a good coat and good bones.

Haclete: Supplied in 1902. The class of cattle here is small and badly bred. there is not very much improvement to be seen as yet. The people are very thankful for the bull.

Valtos: Supplied in 1900. Cattle small and badly bred. They kept as many as they could of the young cattle, and consequently their stock is much improved. They have a second bull now.

Miavaig (for Kneep): Suplied first in 1899. Cattle a fair class. They kept a good many of the bull’s gets, and took good care of them. They got another bull in May 1903. They have now calves between the second bull and the first bull’s heifers, and they look very well. This is about the best case of improvement I have seen in the Lewis.

Crowlista: Supplied in 1904. Cattle small and a mixed class. They will take time to improve.

Tobson: Supplied first in 1899, and again in 1904. Their cattle were a small, badly-bred class. They are now improving, and beginning to show something Hihgland in coat and bones, but the set of horn is still farm from right.

Breasclete: Supplied first in 1900. Cattle very small and badly bred. They did not keep very many of his gets. Those they have kept are an improvement on the old stock. They have a second bull now, and they promise to look better after his gets.

Dalbeg: Supplied in 1901. The cattle in this district are rather a mixed lot of several breeds, even polleds. Their cattle are not very much improved yet, but some of the young cattle have better hair and better bone.

Tolsta Chaolais: Supplied in 1901. Cattle small and badly bred. They have kept some of the bull’s gets, and they are an improvement on the old stock. They should have kept more of them.

In 1908, a further report shows that the scheme continued at about the same rate.

Up to the beginning of the financial year 1908-9 we had purchased in all [since 1899] 412 bulls, which were lent to Grazing Committees on condition that proper arrangements were made for the care and wintering of the animals. In December 1908 we issued our usual notice [...] for bulls, and the following distribution was made of 48 bulls:- [The majority to Skye, Harris and the Southern Isles; in Lewis, just one Highland, to Barvas.]

We have endeavoured to buy our Highland bulls from breeders as near the districts to be served as possible. We are now in touch with so many of the breeders of the best West Highland bulls that we are able to buy direct from them for delivery in May a considerable number on satisfactory terms. this not only obviates the heavy expense for keep which resulted from purchases at the February sales, but the animals are not so heavily fed as they would in that case be. But purchase at the public sales has considerable advantages, and we have always reverted to them for bulls that can be delivered soon after the sales.

As we have stated before, there is ample evidence that our bulls are doing great good to the cattle of the congested areas. This opinion is shared by the crofters and by authorities on stock conversant with the destricts, who urge us to extend our supply of bulls, and in this year of 1909 we have been able to secure and exceptionally good lot of suitable Highland bulls. If the crofters in the west could combine to reduce their ‘souming’ and give their young stock a chance to grow, the improvement would be large and immediate. Even as it is, they get better prices, and they carry out our conditions as to wintering with, as a rule, admirable fidelity.

The following year, Uig was praised for having made best use of the scheme; Barvas and Lochs were doing less well with it, especially the latter where it seems the cattle were very poor and inbred to begin with:

The Parish of Uig in Lewis has been having the use of CDB bulls since 1899. Some of the townships in this parish have been paying a good deal of attention to their cattle, in teh way of keeping the best beasts to breed from, and the results are very satisfactory. There are some very nice, well-bred young cattle to be seen in some parts of the parish.

In total, 679 bulls were provided to the seven counties; three came to Uig in the last year.  After the CDB ceased to exist, in 1912, a similar scheme was continued by the Department of Agriculture into the 1960s. The bulls were overwintered in sheds around Uig, one of which can be seen below the cemetery in Ardroil, and another by the shore in Crowlista using the walls of the old school.  Some of the bulls were swum out to small islands, which occasioned the loss of the Geshader bull in the 1930s.

Meanwhile if you’d like to catch up on some Baile na Cille history, here are some notes we’ve carried before:

Ministers in Uig

Baile na Cille Cemetery

Parish of Uig in 1749

The Old Statistical Report 1796

The New Statistical Account 1833

The Viking Princess and the Seeing Stone

John Munro and the Saighdeirean Mac a’ Mhinisteir

Macgillivray’s Visit to the Old Baile na Cille Church, 1817

The Minister We Never Had

Darkness in Uig

A Rebuking in 1825

The Bequest of the Bell, 1829

Letters from Alexander Macleod, before and after his time in Uig

David Watson and his Boundary Dispute

The Kirk Session Wonders Where the Money Went, 1866

Emily Goes to Church, 1919

Aonghas nam Beann

Upright in Uig

The Reverends Norman Morrison

Rev MacFarlane’s 25th Anniversary

Thanks to the kindness of the new owners, Brian and Miranda Gayton, the church was open to visitors for two days in September 2011, including on  Latha na Fir-Taileisg when some of the Chessmen came home.

Back: Murdo Nicolson Miavaig, Angus Maclean Breanish, John Mackay Uig Lodge, Angus Maciver (Bain) Geshader, Norman E Morrison (Dola) Breanish, Angus Macleod Timsgarry, Finlay Macdonald Timsgary.

Front: Donald Macleod Geshader, Rev Angus MacFarlane Baile na Cille, Malcolm Matheson Ardroil, John Maciver Crowlista, Rev William Macleod Uigen, Malcolm Buchanan Valtos.

Missing: John Macdonald Timsgarry, Murdo Buchanan Uigen, Peter Macdonald Crowlista.

See also the companion picture: the ladies who did the tea and a couple more in the album.

The Congested Districts Board was established by the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act of 1897 to improve industries and infrastructure in the crofting counties which suffering from overpopulation and poverty. Their method was principally the provision of direct grants, specialists and facilities in response to particular local need, and their approach was often openly experimental. The Committee operated for 14 years, from 1898 to 1913, produced an annual report summarising local and district developments.

Lewis was considered a particularly difficult area and a district committee was established. This is their report, in 1900, on the state of, and proposed improvements to, the tweed industry. Note a couple of references to Uig, which was obviously considered particularly ‘deserving’.

Report by the Local Committee on Scottish Home Industries (Tweed Industry) in Lewis and Harris to the right Honourable Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Secretary for Scotland.

My Lord, – In April 1899, under your Lordship’s sanction, Mr Angus Pirie, Rogart, Sutherlandshire, was appointed for a period of two months, to inspect and report upon the present condition of the home-made tweed industry in Lewis and Harris, and to give instructions and advice to the workers with a view to improving the carding, spinning, dyeing, warping, and weaving of home-made tweeds.

Mr Pirie entered upon his duties on 1st May, and submitted a written report on his two months’ work, of date 20th July 1899. During May and June he visited almost all the districts in Lewis and several of the districts in Harris in which tweeds are made. He found many defects in the various processes of the manufacture among the Crofters in both Lewis and Harris, as well as in the primitive looms in use, and embraced every opportunity available to him in the short time at his disposal in conveying to the workers instruction for improving the quality of their tweeds. The people, as a rule, were accessible, and glad to receive instruction and advice, although in some cases the Instructor found, on a second visit, that the workers reverted to their own more antiquated system, because less troublesome than the methods advised. These remarks apply to all the branches connected with the process of manufacture.

In the districts visited by the Instructor in Lewis in which tweeds are made for the market he found 76 hand-looms, of which 11 are worked with the ‘fly shuttle’ and 65 are primitive. They are not all constantly employed, but as one loom can weave all the yarn that can be supplied by several carders and spinners, this shows that a considerable number of the Crofter families are engaged in the industry. Besides these there are several townships where the cloth is made, but for family or local use only, and not as a commercial commodity. It may be remarked, however, that the bulk of the tween in Lewis is produced from October to April, as during the summer and autumn months the people, women as well as men, are chiefly employed on their crofts, and at herring fishing in Stornoway and on the east coast. Thus comparatively few are wholly dependent on the tweed industry for their subsistence in Lewis.

The limited time at Mr Pirie’s disposal only permitted him to visit a few of the townships in Harris, and thus he was unable to ascertain the number of looms in use. But he reported that a large number of families in almost every township are engaged in the industry, and a much larger proportion that in Lewis depend upon it as a means of livelihood. He also reported that, as a general rule, the quality of the work in Harris is superior to the average work in Lewis, although in a few of the lewis districts, particularly in Uig, the product is similar in style and quality to that of Harris.

The present Instructor, Mr Alexander Lamont, entered upon his duties on 1st August, under a twelve months’ engagement. He is a native of Skye, has been engaged in the tweed manufacture since his boyhood, and knows all the details of the work from the wool to the finished cloth, both in hand-loom and mill work. He had been employed for over eight years in the Lochbroom Tweed Mills prior to his appointment here.

With the exception of one month, when, by special arrangement, he was engaged in the Parish or Rogart, Sutherland, in giving a course of lessons in dyeing to the tween-makers in that district, he has itinerated throughout Lewis and Harris, giving instruction and advice to teh Crofters on the lines already laid down. He has been able to pay several visits to all the townships in the wide area over which this industry is carried on, and in many cases he has travelled over long distances to districts in which his personal presence was specially desired by workers who wanted further information and advice in effecting improvements suggested by him on a previous visit.

Mr Lamont’s experience of the workers and their work coincides generally with that of Mr Pirie, as already indicated. But as he has more time than the latter had as his disposal, and is able to make several visits to the same workers, he finds that the prejudices against suggested improvements which one or two visits were unable to overcome are being gradually removed by more frequent intercourse. The process of improvement, however, is slow, but not hopeless. In some districts it has made marked progress.

Two efforts have just been adopted as an experiment for further practical instruction. First – The Instructor has got the use of a Witch-loom, kindly lent to the Committee by the Scottish Home Industries Association from its depot in Harris. This loom has been set up in Stornoway for the purpose of producing improved patters and textures of tweeds, and giving lessons in the work to such as will avail themselves of this opportunity. Second – Two dye-boilers of 30 gallons capacity each have been sent to the District of Uig to enable the workers to dye a sufficient quantity of wool and yarn for a large web at one time, thus alienating the work of the irregular shades produced when the dyeing was done in successive baths in the smaller pots at present in use.

It is hoped that these experiments will be appreciated, and that it may be found useful by-and-bye to supply similar dye-boilers to other deserving districts. It is further hoped that, as a result of the Instructors’ work and supervision, teh quality of work will so improve as to justify the sending of specimens from the better class of workers in Lewis and Harris to the Industrial Exhibition to be held in Glasgow in 1901.

Both Mr Pirie and Mr Lamont remark on the process of hand-carding as handicapping the industry both as regards output and quality. The Committee are more anxious on this point, as it affects the quality and finish of the tweed produced, which they desire to see equal to any in the market. Mr Lamont reports that at present many of th workers send their wool to the south and east of Scotland, and others on the mainland, not only to be carded but to be spun, adn that thus the distinctive character of what is known as ‘Harris Tweed; is apt to be changed and to deteriorate. A carding mill is about finished by Sir Samuel Scott at Tarbert, Harris, and if a similar mill, with washing machinery, were erected in or near Stornoway for Lewis, the temptation to have the wool also mill spun would be greatly reduced, if not entirely removed.

The Committee are well satisfied with the present Instructor, who is very attentive to his duties, in which he takes great interest. He is a capable bicyclist, without which it would be impossible for him to visit the scattered districts of the Island except at longer intervals than would be desirable.

Consider the extensive area over which he has to travel he is unable to repeat his visits to the various localities as frequently as the Committee would desire, and also looking to the slowness of the process in effecting the desired improvements in the industry, they would respectfully suggest that he should be reappointed for another year.

We have honour to be,

Your Lordship’s most obedient Servants,

On behalf of the Local Committee,

George J Campbell,

Chairman

Stornoway, 26th March 1900

Photo: John Macrae (Shonnaidh Mor) Timsgarry; Donald Macleod (Gobha na Uigen) Uigen; Donald Mackay (Domhnall Neil) Crowlista; Calum Gillies, Carishader; unknown; John Macdonald (Iain Fhearchar) Geshader; Rev Macniven; Rev Lee (Edinburgh); Iain Neil Mackay Crowlista; A’ Phraoisg?; Kenneth Maclean (Coinneach Dhomhnaill Chaluim) 19 Valtos; Murdo Maciver, Geshader.

Virtually the whole of the congregation of Uig had joined the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843, which necessitated the building of the large, new but fairly rudimentary church on reclaimed land at Ceann Langabhat – completed in 1846, at which point, according to local tradition, a watch was kept over it at night for fear that “the other ones” would set it alight.

There was further disquiet within the congregation over the next decades. In 1875, after the repeal of the Patronage Act, the larger proportion of the Free Church congregation rejoined the Established Church at Baile na Cille, with Angus Maciver, son of the Catechist, as their minister. The rest continued at the Free Church, and most of these united with the United Presbyterian Church to form the United Free Church in 1900. They were still worshipping in the old Free Church building at Ceann Langabhat (Miavaig), and by 1909 the state of both the manse and the church were causing concern. From the minutes of the Deacon’s Court in that year:

This church was built in 1843 and like many other buildings put up hurriedly at that period, it was meant to meet the requirements of the time. It was a double roofed building with low walls and left without flooring or lining to the walls. the roof has been for many years threatening to give way and when the weather is wet water finds its way in many parts through the roof to the great discomfort of the worshippers. but for the church crisis the work of repair and renovation would have been undertaken long ago and it is now necessary to undertake the work without delay.

The Church was seated for a thousand people but since the Parish has decreased considerably in population, and with all the secessions taking place since 1843, a church to accommodate six hundred would be quite ample.

It would in the opinion of the office-bearers be more expensive and less satisfactory to repair the present church than to build a new one. The proposal is to take down two sides of the present and rebuild on a smaller area, and heighten the walls using the material at hand as far as possible. The membership of the congregation is 161, and the number of adherents is over 400.

It took four years for the project to come to fruition; by that point the congregation stood at 169 members, 7 elders and 12 deacons, with 169 pupils attending four Sunday schools. The work on the church began at midsummer. The Highland News carried the reports.

Highland News, 21 June 1913

Contracts have now been set for the new United Free Chruch to be erected at Miavaig, Uig. The contractors are:- Mason, Mr Donald Maclean, Lochcarron; Joiner, Mr John Mackenzie, Lochcarron; Slater, Mssrs Macswayed and Fraser, Dingwall; Plumber, Mr William Tolmie, Dingwall; Lath and plaster, Mssrs T Turbull & Son, Portree; Painter, Mssrs Donald Mackenzie & Sons, Stornoway. The work which will cost about £1000 is to be commenced first week.

Highland News,  20 September 1913

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was dispensed in the United Free Church congregation of Uig last Sabbath. The Minister of the congregation, Reverend James Maciver, was assisted by the Reverends AJ Morrison, Portree, and R Morrison, Stornoway. The communion services began on Thursday and ended on Monday. Most of the services were conducted in the open air in a beautiful sheltered spot in Valtos Glen – an ideal place for a communion if the weather is favourable. Sunday however turned out to be an exceedingly wet and boisterous day, and it was found impossible to worship in the Glen.

The congregation being without a place of worship, a new church being in course of erection on the site of the old one, they were generously accommodated on the site of the old one, [the] Established Church, by the favour of the minister, the Reverend Allan Mackenzie. It is a sign of the times and a foreshadowing of coming events when office-bearers of United Free and Established partook together of the Sacred Symbols. The congregation of Uig had an eventful and stormy history, and during the turbulent period 20 or 30 years ago not even the most sanguine could have imagined that in the year of grace 1913 such a scene could be witness as took place on Sunday last. But we are moving forward and surely it is to better things. The ministers of both congregations one to be congratulated on the goodwill shown both by them and [by] their congregations on this occasion.

Highland News, 8 November 1913

The new United Free Church at Uig was opened on Thursday by the Reverend Peter Macdonald, West Church, Glasgow. There was a large congregation, and the whole service was hearty and encouraging. A number of the ministers of the Presbytery were present, and the Reverend Allan Mackenzie, Established Church, was also on the platform. After an appropriate sermon from Isaiah 62, verses 6 and 7¹, Mr Macdonald in a few words declared the church open.

George Macleod, Garrabost, clerk of the Presbytery, made some remarks, as also did Reverend Allan Mackenzie. Mr MacNiven, the minister of the congregation, voiced the thanks of the congregation first of all to Dr Macgregor and Mr Lee to whose kind efforts the congregation are indebted for the new church, then to the various contractors who did the work entrusted to them so well, to Reverend Peter Macdonald for coming to open the church, and to all the other friends who with their means and with their presence encouraged the congregation at this new stage of their history. The church is a handsome building and most suitable to the requirements of the congregation.

The church did indeed absorb the back wall of the old building, which was seen again during later renovations. As foretold above, the United Free joined with the Established Church to form the Church of Scotland in 1929; there were two Church of Scotland congregations in Uig until they merged into a single charge in 1979.

John Macleod’s History of the Church in Uig (available to consult at the museum and in Stornoway Library) gives more detail on the secessions.

¹Isaiah 62: 6. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence 7. And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

[singlepic id=1278 w=240 float=right]Three buses went from Uig to Stornoway daily during the war – John Macaulay Islivig, Peter Macritchie Aird and John Buchanan Valtos. During the war the buses used to be full of servicemen coming and going back from leave, some never returning. I remember as a kid I was on holiday at my uncle’s house in Timsgarry and got on Peter Macritchie’s bus to go back to Enaclete. I was sitting beside Neil Matheson, 22 Crowlista, (right) who was in naval uniform. It was his last leave, and he was lost at sea, aged 27, off North Africa. (Neil died on 11 November 1943 and was attached to HMS President III at the time. His hatband reads HMS Iron Duke (which spent the war in Scapa Flow) and the troopship HMS Ombra on the frame was a minesweeping yacht – presumably Neil served on both.)

[singlepic id=1277 w=180 float=left]All buses coming and going stopped at Puff’s house – Norman Macdonald, Post Office, Enaclete. There were always people ceilidhing at his house, as he had a wireless and the bodachs used to visit to hear the nine o’clock news about the war. There was great hilarity when the service lads came off the bus and they were welcomed by all and sundry. Bottles of beer would be drunk beside the bus and enws was swapped, length of leave, where they were serving and whether there were any other Uig lads with them.

Puff, left, had been a policeman in Glasgow but came home after his wife, who was from Lemreway (South Lochs) died. John M Macdonald, Puff’s son, was a Quartermaster in the Merchant Navy, on the Anchor Donaldson Line of Glasgow. He was on SS Gregalia during the war. John was later the postmaster in Enaclete, a highly intelligent man who should have stayed at sea as he had no idea how to work a croft.

[singlepic id=1276 w=280 float=right]Puff’s brothers Domhnall Dubh (Donald) and Iain Masach (John) – right, with John Macleod 5 Enaclete – ran a shop beside the Post Office and also had the tank for paraffin. The people from Ungeshader, Enaclete and Gisla used to queue there for petrol. Donald had been a policeman in Glasgow but had to resign, possibly because of epilepsy. He swore like a trooper but was very kind to children. On the counter of the shop were small tin pails with boiled sweets. When we went into the shop he would put his hand in the tin and give us some sweets for nothing, and then in Gaelic tell us to bugger off. He was not religious; I think some people looked on Enaclete as a ‘place of darkness’ in those days as nobody sat at the Lord’s Table to take communion.

We used to have two grocery vans, a butcher’s van and a fish van every week during the war. The Co-op van and Lipton’s van came with groceries from Stornoway; John Buchanan, Valtos had a grocery van and John Matheson, Cliff, used to come on Saturday with his butcher’s van. During the summer herring season Alex Morrison, from Achmore but with a paternal connection to Reef, used to come with fresh herring, charging 2/- or 2/6 for 20 or 25 herring, and he always gave you a couple of extra. My grandmother did the curing and every week she used to put around 20 into a barrel with rough salt for our winter feed. Being from Bernera she was a dab hand when it came to fish.

Robert Buchanan, in The Hebrid Isles (Chatto & Windus, 1883), gives an account of the practice in Uist in the 19th century:

Ever and anon, in the course of these aquatic rambles, you meet a group of kelp-burners gathered on a headland or promontory; and a capital study it would make for an artist with some little Rembrandtish mastery over the shadows. Clouding the background of a cold blue sky, the thick smoke rises from their black fire, and the men move hither and thither, in and out of the vapour, raking the embers together, piling the dry seaweed by armsful on to the sullen flames. as they flit to and fro, their wild Gaelic cries seem foreign and unearthly, and their unkempt hair and ragged garments loom strangely through the foul air. On the hill-slope above them, where a rude road curves to the shore, a line of carts, each horse guided by a woman, comes creaking down to the week-strewn beach to gather tangle for drying. The women, with their coarse serge petticoats kilted high and coloured handkerchiefs tied over their heads, stride like men at the horses’ heads, and shriek the beasts forward…

The manufacture of kelp, although depreciated infinitely in value since Government took the duly off Spanish barilla, is yet carried on to a large extent. The process is very simple – that of burning the seaweed in stone ovens until it leaves the solid deposit called kelp in the raw state; but care and experience are required to produce the best article.

He also quotes John MacCulloch’s The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, in a series of letters to Sir Walter Scott of 1824. MacCulloch was a geologist and wrote in very useful detail; the publication is available in full on Google Books.

As the price of kelp varies in the market, the revenues of the proprietors are subject to fluctuations from which the labourers are exempt. When first wrough, and down to the year 1760, the price reached from £2 to £5 per ton; the expenses being then far less than at present. In 1790 it was at £6; whence, as the succeeding war checked the importation and raised the price of barilla, it rose to £11, £12, £15, and, for a short period, to £20. Valuable, therefore, as this species of property may be, it is extremely unsteady; while it is also precarioius, as any great discovery of the long-attempted problems to decompose sea-salt by a cheap process, might extinguish it in a moment. Where the interests are so few, and the total advantages so limited, it could scarcely expect protection from restrictive laws. I must now indeed add, that between the period of writing and printing this, the duties on barilla have been diminished, but that an after-suspension of the law has also taken place. Hence it becomes unnecessary further to alter what I had written; while the present view will tend to show what the effects of the loss on this manufacture are likely to be on the insular population, and how necessary it is that some equivalent, if temporary, relief should be given.

If this manufacture was once ill-understood and worse imagined, it seems now to have attained all the perfection of which it is susceptible. June, July, August and part of September form the period of this harvest. The drift weed thrown on the shore by storms is sometimes used; but, if much injured, it is rejected, as in this state it is found to yield little salt. This kind consists chiefly of tangles, as they are called here, or Fucus saccharinus and Digitatus, which at all times contain less soda than the harder species, and are also much better adapted for manure. The latter consists chiefly of four, the Serratus, Digitatus, Nodosus, and Vesiculosus, and these are cut at low-water from the rocks on which they grow. As the value of a kelp estate depends on the magnitude of the crop, it is therefore regulated principally by three circumstances: namely, the linear extent of the shores, the breadth of the interval between high and low water mark, consisting in the length of the ebb or fall of the tide and the flatness of the beach, and the tranquility of the water of its shelter from the surge: to wich may be added the nature of the rocks, as some kinds are found to favour the growth of the plants more than others. It has been attempted to increase the extent of this submarine soil by rolling stones into the water; but I believe that the success has never repaid the expense. On some estates this harvest is reaped every second year; on others only every third; nor does it seem to be agreed what are the comparative advantages of either practice.

The weeds, being cut by the sickle at low-water, are brought on shore by a very simple and ingenious process. A rope of heath or birch is laid beyond them, and the ends being carried up beyond the high-water mark, the whole floats as the tide rises, and thus, by shortening the rope, is compelled to settle above the wash of the sea, whence it is conveyed to the dry land on horseback. The more quickly it is dried, the better is the produce; and, when dry, it is burnt in coffers, generally constructed with stone, sometimes merely excavated in the earth. In Orkney the latter are preferred. It has been attempted, idly enough, to introduce kilns, a refinement of which the advantages bear no proportion to the expense, as in the ordinary mode the kep forms its own fuel. As twenty-four tons of weed, at a medium, are required to form a ton of kelp, it is easy to conceive the labour employed for this quantity, in the several process of cutting, landing, carrying, drying, stacking and burning.

In general the kelp shores are reserved by the proprietor, who thus becomes the manufacturer and merchant. If, in somepoints of view, this is a questionable piece of policy, it is a practice not easily avoided. The farms of the great bulk of the tenants are too small to allow of their managing the kelp to advantage; nore would it be easy to find a responsible lessee for this part of the estate alone. As there is no class of labourers in this country, the work must also be performed by the small tenants. These, however, are not paid by money wages; but, being the tenants on the estate itself, a portion of their rent is thus imposed and received in the form of labour. Thus two pounds a year, and the manufacture of a ton of kelp, will represent the average rent of a farm here valued at five pounds.

The Hebridean Seaweed Company gives a good history of the industry in general.   The industry is on the rise again and is believed to have great potential for the economy of the Western Isles.

The book looks in detail at the development of the estate, the tenants under the Mathesons and Leverhulme, the subsequent owners (including Col Digby), the various keepers at Morsgail and Kinlochresort, extracts from the game books, reports by visitors and in newspapers, a detailed and dramatic account of a day’s stalking by Lord Granville Gordon in 1894, and photographs of staff and visitors.

The following is from the gamebook of Sir Francis Denys, favourite nephew of Lady Matheson:

October 22nd to 26th, 1894:

Left the Castle at 8am for Morsgail, walked thence to Loch Hamnaway with Rory Mackenzie and James Matheson. The latter had spied a good stag on his way across in the morning and we made straight for the shielings where we found him lying on the flat in an impossible position Waited until 5pm then had to leave him. Next day we hoped to meet with him again, but only found the two eight-pointers which were with him the previous evening. A crofter and dog spoiled the stalk; we saw nine men with dogs on different hills during the day who consequently swept the ground of deer. Much bad language ensued. On the 24th we walked the ground but saw nothing. Fished the loch and pool and caught 1 salmon, 6lbs, and 4 sea trout. The 25th was too stormy for the hill. Fished from 1pm and caught 1 salmon, 5lbs, and 3 sea trout. The next day, the 26th, I left Matheson’s at 8.30am to stalk my way back to Morsgail. Saw a fine stag with a herd of 30, which we were about to stalk, when they were frightened over the march by the inevitable crofter and dog. Then turned back for a shot at a seven-pointer which missed. Just as we reached the mark, a young stag with seven hinds crossed in behind us, and we again turned back. Mackenzie made an easy stalk and I had a missed shot which took effect through the liver. We lost him through our own stupidity in not keeping our glasses on him until he laid down, as after we sprang him the first time, as usual in such cases he would travel until he dropped, so we lost view of him. Arrived Morsgail 5pm without the 3 stags Gore-Langton had given me permission to kill.

Among the interesting snippets is the note that Matheson had begun to build a surfaced track from Morsgail to Lochresort, before being stopped by the Chamberlain who persuaded him it would spoil the shooting.

Morsgail is available from the museum (80pp;£12) or by post (email for detail); we also have some of David’s other books.

Gamekeeping and Sporting Tales from the Hebrides and the Highlands (new)
A collection of stories and histories from estates and associated activities around the North and West, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Small Isles and the Mainland. Lady stalkers, maharajahs, poachers and taxidermists, and the development of the industry, with many photographs and documents. 100pp; £12

Soval: the History of a Lewis Sporting Estate (new)
A richly illustrated history of the Soval sporting estate in Lochs, laid out in 1850 by Sir James Matheson for letting purposes. 60pp; £10.

The Sporting Estates of the Outer Hebrides
A detailed, insightful and account of the owners, tenants and gamekeepers of all the sporting estates in the Outer Hebrides, with many photographs. Already a classic. 144pp; £12.

Salmon and Seatrout Angling in the Outer Hebrides, Past and Present (updated)
The updated version of a previous volume, covering Lewis and Harris, now extended to the Southern Isles. Packed with detail about the rivers, the methods, the owners, gillies and visitors, and the development of angling. 110pp; £15. (Previous Lewis and Harris volume, £12)