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.

Dingwall. Sheriff Criminal Court.  The following cases were set down for trial on Wednesday last, before the Sheriff-substitute and a jury […]

George Gillies, residing at Grista [Erista], and John Maclean, residing at Fimisgarry [Timsgarry], in the parish of Uig and Island of Lewis, accused of having broken into the parish church of Uig, and stolen therefrom a waterproof coat, some carpenters’ tools, and a pane of glass, pleaded not guilty. Mr Mackenzie, for the pannels [the accused], objected that the aggravation of housebreaking was not correctly or relevantly charged, and, after some discussion, the objection was sustained; and the case having been sent to a jury, without aggravation, they unanimously found the libel not proven, and the pannels were accordingly dismissed from the bar.

Angus Gillies, residing at Grista [Erista]; and Marion Matheson, or Gillies, his wife, accused of sheep-stealing, or reset of theft [receiving stolen goods], pleaded not guilty. Mr Mackenzie objected to the relevancy of the libel, that, though the pannels could not possibly be guilty of both offences, yet the affirmative part of the minor proposition set forth that they were guilty of the said crimes, instead of bearing that they were guilty of the said crime of theft, or reset of theft. The objection was repelled. After proof, the jury unanimously found the charge of theft not proven against either of the pannels; by a majority, that the charge of reset against Angus Gillies was not proven; but unanimously found the female pannel guilty of the reset, and she was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in Dingwall jail. The court then adjourned till one o’clock on Thursday.

The people of the island coming to the meeting house on winter nights, whether for the purpose of being catechised, or hearing an ordinary lecture and exposition of God’s word, is a scene that no one could ever forget who saw it even once.

The meeting-house is in a hollow, surrounded by jagged, cragged, broken hills all around. From our house could be seen blazes of light comiing from all quarters making for the meeting-house. Before starting from their homes they provided themselves with peats of fire to light them on their way fixed ot an irdon spit, or held in tongs, and a fresh supply of peats under their arms, which directed their steps on the way, for every step must be watchd with the greatest caution.

There was no road of any description, and I would defy any place to be more difficult to walk on a dark night. There were no lanterns in Bernera in those days, nor any paraffin oil. A few families had candles, but the most depended on peat fire light, and lamps in which they used fish oil.

At the beginning of winter, the people provided for the meeting-house a supply of this oil stored in large jars to replenish the lamps. The regularity with which these people came to these meetings, and in such circumstances, is something wonderful to comtemplate, and of which, I believe, there is nothing analogous at this day in Scotland. They must have been receiving real spiritual good, when they continued it all the years that I remember on that Island.

Much more on Angus Maciver to follow.

There had evidently been a small school at Mangersta in the 1820s and in the neighbouring village of Carnish in the 1840s, but when both those townships were turned into farms there was no population requiring a school, even after the Education Act of 1872 made provision for one.  The children of Mangersta Farm went to the Islivig School.

When Mangersta was broken up and became a village again in 1911, there was again need for a school, and one was built in 1912, opening on 14 November under teacher Alexander MacPhail.

From the school log:

Thursday 14 November 1912

Today the new Mangersta School opened for the first time with an attendance of 14 pupils.

10 March 1913

[From the HMI report of an inspection on 5 April of that year:]

This well-lighted and well-appointed composite school has recently been provided for the new crofter settlement at Mangersta. The roll is now 20 and a certificated teachers has been placed in charge. Progress is as yet only moderate but the pace should presently increase.

5 August 1913

[From the Religious Instruction report:]

This is a new school opened in November last. An excellent beginning has been made. The pupils are well grounded in the portions studied and under examination answered readily and well. A section of the shorter catechism had been gone over and psalms committed to memory, and in both the appearance was distinctly good.

The 14 children attending on the first day were aged between 7 and 14, all of whom had previously attended Islivig School.  In order of the register:

Angus Macaulay, born 1898, son of Donald, 3 Mangersta
Donald Macleod, born 1899, son of Finlay, 10 Mangersta
Norman Macritchie, born 1901, son of Malcolm, 5 Mangersta
Malcolm John Macritchie, born 1900, son of Malcolm, 5 Mangersta
Angus Morrison, born 1901, son of Donald Morrison, 1 Mangersta
Malcolm Macleod, born 1900, son of Finlay Macleod, 10 Mangersta
Norman Buchanan, born 1901, son of John Buchanan, 4 Mangersta
Duncan Macleod, born 1903, son of Finlay Macleod, 10 Mangersta
Donald Macaulay, born 1904, son of Donald Macaulay, 3 Mangersta
Maggie Ann Macaulay, born 1900, daughter of Donald Macaulay, 3 Mangersta
Maryann Buchanan, born 1905, daughter of John Buchanan, 4 Mangersta
Mary Matheson, born 1904, daughter of Donald Matheson, 11 Mangersta
Maryann Matheson, born 1905, daughter of Donald Matheson, 11 Mangersta
Annie Macritchie, born 1907, daughter of Malcolm Macritchie, 5 Mangersta

Thanks to Dougie Beck for the photo.

[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.

[singlepic id=1263 w=400]

Linked by Phone — After years of patient waiting, Breanish township has at long last been linked to the world outside by telephone. Up till now the nearest phone was Islivig PO (Call Office), Timsgarry 206, a mile away to the north of Breanish.

In the spring, post office telephone linesmen carried on an extension of poles and lines from Islivig right to the village centre of Breanish. there are no two homes in Breanish with phones and more to come in the future. Timsgarry 344 is the phone number of Mr and Mrs Norman Morrison, 16 Breanish, and Timsgarry 343 is the phone number of Mrs Mackinnon, 18 Breanish.

Now the good folk of Breanish feel they are more than ever before in touch with relatives and friends far and near and they wish to convey their thanks to their County Councillor, Rev Donald Macaulay, for his help.

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.

There is mutton in the mountains
And lobsters by the score
And the odd wee tail of salmon
That got tired and came ashore.

In the homes of Pairc and Uig
Where they shoot like William Tell,
Though the keeper mustn’t know it,
There is venison as well.

So the poor old Highland crofter,
Butt of all the would-be wits,
Can provide a slap-up dinner
That would gratify the Ritz.

Stornoway Gazette, 23 September 1972

One day last week, Mr Murdo Macleod, Cliff, found on the sands close by, a small tin box which had just been washed ashore. He carried it home and opened it. Inside were four steel tubes. As the damp seemed to have got at them he considered them quite harmless, and he began making a closer examination when one of them exploded, badly damaging his hands and face. The thumb and forefinger of the left hand were practically blown off, and the other fingers badly lacerated. The right hand and arm and the right side of his face were also badly injured. His little boy, who was standing close by, got some of the stuff into his leg. Fortunately, the nurse was immediately in attendance and dressed their wounds. That same night, the father was removed to Stornoway Hospital where, we are glad to hear, he is progressing favourably. The boy is also doing well. It is hoped that any person finding anything of an uncertain character will exercise every precaution in dealing with it.

19 March 1920

His many friends are glad to see Mr Murdo Macleod, cliff, back again to his home, and looking so well after his treatment in hospital in the south. It will be remembered that mention was made in these columns of a serious accident he had in November last, when he narrowly escaped death from the explosion of a fuse found on the shore. His hands (particularly the left one) and face were badly damaged, and he was removed to Stornoway hospital that same night. After a fortnight’s stay there he had to come home with his hands still unhealed.

The district nurse – Miss Jeannie Maclean – began to attend him. Great credit is due to her for the manner in which she discovered and extracted, under many disadvantages, two pieces of brass tubing which had lodged and had been left in his hand. His eye, however, needed attention, and he was sent for treatment to an infirmary in Glasgow. There it was found that the sight had been damaged, the eyeball being penetrated in different places. That necessitated the immediate excision of the eye. A decaying bone was also taken out of his thumb; and now, so successful has the operation been, his eyes look quite normal.