Archive for the ‘tales’ Category
Friday, March 5th, 2010
The following was written by Maggie Smith for Hebridean Connections. The genealogies of all the known inhabitants of the island of Vuia - uninhabited since 1841 - can be found here.
Life on the island of Vuia Mhòr was hard, with little fertile land and no safe anchorage. The peats were ...
Posted in emigration, history, land issues, tales | No Comments »
Friday, February 26th, 2010
The Reverend Aulay Macaulay was born in Brenish in 1669, son of Dugald, grandson of Angus Beag Macaulay, he of the big stone and the critical wife, and brother of Donald Òg. Aulay started his career in Tiree and Coll and was minister at Scarista, Harris from 1712 until his ...
Posted in church, genealogy, people, tales | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
This is the final section of an interesting and detailed piece on the Pygmies Isle (first mentioned by Dean Monro in 1549 as having been inhabited by "little people") near the Butt of Lewis , published by WC Mackenzie in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland, 13 March ...
Posted in archaeology, gàidhlig, life in uig, placenames, tales | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
We do fairly harp on the heroic stories of Dòmhnall Càm, the local chieftain, warrior and cattle-plunderer, particularly ruthless in wars against the Morrisons of Ness, but there are some deeply unpleasant traditions about him too. The following is from Capt FWL Thomas's Traditions of the Macaulays (1880).
Donald Cam and ...
Posted in tales | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
In December 1900, the lighthouse on Eilean Mor in the Flannan Isles, which had only been lit for the first time a year previously, was discovered deserted by its three keepers; their dinner table had been set with cold meat, pickles and potatoes, and a chair was overturned in an obvious urgent ...
Posted in fishing, tales | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Cha robh cam, nach robh crosda.
The following is an account of a familiar tale of the island - perhaps the most famous told of Donald Cam, the chief of the Macaulays in Uig, as given by Capt FWL Thomas in his Traditions of the Macaulays of Lewis (1880).
In 1597 some ...
Posted in history, people, tales | No Comments »
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
The following comes from the Spring 1987 edition of Sanais, the Comann Eachdraidh's quarterly publication under the editorship of Anna Mackinnon. There are many tales about the Old Soldiers of Uig and this is another about the doughty Calum Olach of Valtos, serving with the Seaforth Highlanders as one of ...
Posted in history, military & police, people, tales | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
[singlepic=907,291]
From DDC Pochin Mould's West over Sea, another telling of the familiar story of the ship's boy who was murdered for the Lewis Chessmen by an Uig gillie. The story as told by Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, brother of Roderick Mackenzie, the keeper mentioned below, is also given by Dolly ...
Posted in tales | No Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
James Shaw Grant, in one of his many books about the folk and tales of the Islands, reckoned that the evidence available does not support the idea that Mac an t-Srònaich was the vicious murderer of popular legend. Mac an t-Srònaich was a native of Garve on the mainland, and ...
Posted in history, people, tales | No Comments »
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
[singlepic=439,383]
From Sanais,1988.
There lived in Uig, before the advent of the policeman, a man of great physical powers and a wild, lawless nature, who robbed and plundered his neighbours with impunity. To remove him, the crew of a boat to visit the Flannan Isles evolved a plan to maroon him on ...
Posted in tales | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
[singlepic=426,480]
Further to the Daily Express cartoon about the alien cause of the disappearing loch at Morsgail, here's a summary of the international coverage, from the Stornoway Gazette, 29 Dec 1959.
Few events in Lewis in recent years have aroused such worldwide interest as the "Morsgail Meteorite". In addition to the ...
Posted in entertainments, tales | No Comments »
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
A very strange tale of the death of a Hebridean woman in Iceland, and the subsequent supernatural problems that ensued when her hosts failed to fulfill her dying wishes. This comes from Folk-lore and Legends: Scandinavia, by various authors, published London 1890. The tale originates in the Eyrbiggja Saga and ...
Posted in church, tales, vikings | No Comments »
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
A series of articles on the Old Soldiers of Uig appeared in the Comann Eachdraidh Uig publication, Sanais, in the 1980s, from which this is an extract.
John Munro, Iain Mac a' Mhinisteir, was the only son of the Rev Hugh Munro, minister at Bailenacille for fifty years; a son of ...
Posted in history, military & police, tales | No Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Donald Òg, younger son of Dugald Macaulay of Brenish and himself tacksman of Brenish and Ardroil ca. 1740-1762, left, like many of the Macaulays, a lasting impression on the oral tradition of the area. Among his characteristics were a taste for swordfighting, and a certain delight in the vastness of ...
Posted in church, history, tales | No Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
Donald Òg was the younger of two sons called Donald, born to Dugald Macaulay, tacksman of Brenish, in the late 17th century; he was the great-grandson of Domhnall Càm. Rev William Matheson's columns on the Macaulays, published in the Gazette in the 1950s, include several stories about Donald Òg drawn ...
Posted in gàidhlig, history, land issues, military & police, tales | No Comments »
Stornoway, UNITED KINGDOM