The cause of my sadness is the mill’s decline,
Not getting what I need for my baking.
-Calum Ruairidh Bhàin (Calum Mackay, Bragar)

The Norse Mills of Lewis by Dr Finlay Macleod (Acair, 2009) is surely the most comprehensive volume imaginable on our horizontal mills – including their construction and use, context in world history, references in bàrdachd, photos and a complete (?) annotated list of all known mills on the Island.  Uig has the greatest concentration.  An exhibition of Dr Finlay’s research opens in the main gallery at An Lanntair in Stornoway on 12 October.

The book is available in English or Gaelic from local shops, our museum, Acair or directly from us for £15, p&p free.  Below is an example of a single mill entry, in this case our Muileann a’ Mhinisteir (the Minister’s Mill) on the north edge of Glen Valtos (illustrated above and more pictures here).

Muileann a’ Mhinisteir

This one is located high above Gleann Bhaltois in what seems to be rather an unusual site for a mill. It is west of a stream running south from Loch a’ Gheòidh and above a sheer drop where the stream cascades down the north side of the glen.  From below, it seems a most precarious situation. On site, little remains of the small underhouse which is built into the rock with large stones. The lower millstone rests with its atypically small rynd-bed. A second lower millstone is broken in two, with one half used in the wall and the other half inside, with clear jumper chisel cut-marks on its eye. The lade is well-built, with a stone base and a good drop; it runs west of the stream and there is a dam on the loch. NB 075346.

We might extract from Dr Finlay’s book a checklist of the 67 recorded Uig mills to visit, for you new millbaggers.

During the autumn and winter the grain is prepared at leisure as potatoes are first consumed, or nearly so, before the meal is much run upon. When in urgent need of meal, the grain is sometimes dried in an iron pot on the fire, and then taken to the quern or hand mill, where, however, a great quantity is necessarily lost, from the difficulty of collecting it as it issues from between the stones. This meal is called “gratanach,” is much liked by some people who could not well digest the common meal, and is the ancient way of preparing it. In old times, also, the barley heads were taken, and the grain switched out of them, as is done occasionally in some parts even now, and kiln-dried in the husks.

To-day, however, the most usual way is by the flail, when the grain is winnowed in the breeze that is always ready for it, and then taken to the kiln. Every six or eight crofters join together and build one of these little huts for their mutual benefit. A hole is dug in the centre, with a trench leading to it. This is covered over so as to support a quantity of straw, on which the grain is laid. The heat from a peat fire is led under the straw along the trench, and the grain thus dried. After this the grain is taken to one of the little mills, also erected by the joint efforts of a portion of the crofters.

Follow one of the narrow mill-lades from some stream, and you arrive at a little Esquimaux-looking hut. Crawl into this, and you find two good granite stones; suspended over the centre is a stout bag of woven rushes; through one corner of this the grain trickles into a wooden shoe. As the stone revolves, a projecting stick strikes this shoe and tilts the contents into the hole in the stone, the shoe being refilled by the next revolution. The grain is deposited in a hole in the stonework on which the mill-stones rest, the hut itself being in most cases built of turf. The stones are cut with great labour and patience out of the granite rock by the village mason or blacksmith; and a granite cliff near Dalbeg, on the road from Carloway to Barvas, is often occupied at the base by an industrious millstone hewer.

[A half-hewn millstone can be seen, still attached to its source, at Gannstotl near Geshader; pictured here.]

Here and there modern mills have been erected by the proprietor, and let to tenants; all the crofters within a certain district arc obliged to send their grain thither, or pay the miller the same as if they did. This is rather a high-handed mode of introducing civilisation. For instance, the people of Uig have to forward their grain to Callanish Mill, either going upwards of twenty miles by road or crossing Loch Roag by boat, when, on arrival, the mill may be full of work, or the weather too stormy to return. Such eventualities often occur.

In this way several days are always, and many days often, spent away from home, while the families arc awaiting the meal they might have had ground at their doors. A great many people prefer paying the penalty and grinding at their own little mills, and all complain of the great tax thus imposed on them to enable the worthy miller to pay his rent. The meal once ground, they have provided themselves with sieves through which to take off the rough. These, are made of sheepskins, stretched over strong wooden hoops until they are tight as a drum; the perforations are made with a small awl made of a straightened cod-hook with the barb chipped off: this is stuck in a handle of tangle stem, which enables the hand to grasp it readily when heated in the fire. These simple and useful little instruments are in universal use in the Lews for this and similar purposes.

Seaforth Lodge 21 April 1836

Dear Sir

I have now the honour to reply to your letter regarding the offer of Alexander MacRae for the lands of Mealista, Keanhusly and the Island of Mealista, and to send you two letters from him on the subject, dated the 31^st ultimo, and the 14^th current. Mealista was let at the General set of the Island, at Whitsunday 1828, at a rent of £70. It was always reckoned one of the dearest farms in the parish and for several years past has been only partially occupied, the rent a present paid being only £50. It is occupied by 16 families, who in fact thus have the whole farm at the rent of £50. Keanhusly and the island of Mealista, were let at the same time to George Mitchell at a rent of £42. This rent is moderate, but the lands are dear enough to him, from the trespass on his bounds by the Sheep of the Uig tenants.

These are the lands for which Mr MacRae offers

£84
Mealista pays just now                 50
Keanhusly and Island Mealista     42
£92
difference – short £8

But as he has left the rent to be found by you, perhaps he would not object to giving the £8 more, or £6 more at least, making the new rent £90, which would only be a deduction of £2 from the rents at present paid.

As to the disposal of the present occupiers of Mealista and Keanhusly, as Alexander MacRae of Scaliscro, refuses to pay any rent for the piece of Moor (formerly Sheilings of the tenants of Uig) which he has possessed since his entry, tho’ it is specially reserved in his Lease, and as he states that rather than pay for it, he will leave the country, it will be necessary to prosecute him, and George Mitchell will take Scaliscro and Strome, for a wintering, and give a fair rent for them.

The tenants of Mealista, 16 families, can be accommodated at Ness; such of them as can fish, or are disposed to commence, near the Butt, and the others at some distance from it.

William MacGregor is afraid that if these lands be let to Sheep farmers and be strictly preserved from trespass, that the tenants of Uig cannot keep sheep; but certainly if these tenants cannot keep sheep unless they are permitted to graze them on the lands of others, they should not keep any.

The Lease should be for 11 or 9 years at least, for if it be short, the lands may be thrown on your hands at the end of the short lease, with a view to the reduction of the rent, when there may not be small tenants conveniently at hand, to take the farm should you not be disposed to submit to any reduction.

John Macdonald, at Crobeg, has erected a mill there, for which he proposes to pay a rent of £8. yearly, provided you bind all the tenants of the parish of Lochs to grind their grain at it; and cause all the small mills, hand mills and kerns to be discontinued and destroyed.

Dr Miller has several times applied to me for payment of a sum of £44 yearly, which he says was promised to be paid to him from the Estate, and two or three years of which was paid, up to August 1833, so that there are two years due in August last. He says he made an agreement regarding it, with the Lady, and that there was no writing on the subject. I have not paid him anything on account of the claim, and will be glad to be honoured with your instructions thereon.

I am sorry to have to state that the weather still continues very unfavourable for getting the seed into the ground; continued showers of rain and sleet, keep the ground so wet that no sowing can be attempted. Alexander planted some potatoes lately, and the seed has rotted in the ground. Kirkpatrick was planting this morning, the weather being somewhat dry, and to guard against loss he was putting the potatoes uncut.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect
Dear Sir
Your most obedient
Humble Servant
Thomas Knox