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 the manse with a taste for adventure, he obtained a commission in the new battalion of the 78th (Seaforth Highlanders) raised from the Seaforth estates in 1804.  He was an ensign and his commission [ » read more ]

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 his herd:  evidently when his cattle were being driven over Ard Bhreinis, the tail end of the procession was still at Cas Bhraighe. Rev William Matheson continues his account of Donald’s life in his history [ » read more ]

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 from the Morrison manuscripts.  He writes: According to Morrison, Donald Òg Macaulay of “Brenish fought on the King’s side at Culloden”.  The historical basis of this statement is probably that in the Independent Company raised [ » read more ]

Duncan Macdonald, Gisla, was the postman on the Kinlochresort route and his daily walk took him four miles over the moors to the remote village.  One day in 1959, he noticed that a loch was missing:  the water was simply gone.  Much debate ensued over the reason for this but the obvious explanation was alien activity.  The above appeared in the Scottish Daily Express on 3 Dec 1959.  Fifty years on, the outline of the loch, still dry(ish), is clearly visible on remote ground just [ » read more ]

Written by Dave Roberts; this appeared previously in the Uig News. Naturally the Each Uisge or Waterhorse was known in Uig in past centuries. It lived in the darkest lochs and was feared and respected, as it would emerge from the lochs and took on human form, perhaps apprearing as a handsome young man, whose origin was occasionally betrayed by strands of waterweed in his hair. Another guise was as an old lady: when the Each Uisge visited in the form of a cailleach, there [ » read more ]

From the Stornoway Gazette, 2 August 1960 and subsequent editions. White Lady Startles Drivers:  a Garynahine Ghost Story The “Garynahine Ghost,” which promised to be Lewis’s best authenticated spectre to date, has turned out to be a false alarm.  Several motorists had reported startling encounters near Garynahine Bridge with a tall woman, dressed in white to her toes, and carrying a staff, who suddenly loomed up in the light of their headlamps.  Drivers who braked and stopped said that the “white lady” peered in at [ » read more ]

A mysterious cave full of swords was once discovered on Mealisval, but the could not be found again.  Dave Roberts gave the story of the discovery of the cave in an article for Uig News and here gives a range of possible explanations. In the Iron Age (2000 years ago) people often deposited weapons made of bronze or iron into water. They also built and used underground passage ways – thought by some to have been routes to the ‘underworld’. In Orkney there are a [ » read more ]

Abridged from Dolly Doctor’s Tales and Traditions of the Lews (Acair): The Buannaichean or Buannas of the Lord of the Isles were a set of picked warriors who were supposed to keep close to him and protect him from danger, especially when he left his own district.  They were outstanding in strength and stature, very brave and skilled with any weapon.  Macdonald visited many of his islands and at each place the Buannas were quartered out on the people near where the great man stayed.  [ » read more ]

An extract from the unpublished memoirs of Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, son of the gamekeeper Roderick Mackenzie.  AJ was born in 1887 in Kinlochresort and moved with his family to the keeper’s house at Uig Lodge, where he began at Crowlista School. In May 1892 after the spring holidays, I began my formal education. I had never been at school before except for one day at Kinlochresort when my mother sent me with the other boys thinking I would be happier at school, than alone [ » read more ]

William Matheson, Mac Gille Chaluim, wrote extensively of his own family in Uig: Malcolm Matheson [a younger son of Donald Ruadh (or Ban) Matheson, of Kneep and Valtos] known as Calum Ruadh or Calum Mòr, was tenant in Carnish when John Nicolson was tacksman.  In his time the population of the townlands of Uig was increasing rapidly, with the result that what were previously summer pasturages came to be occupied permanently by some of the tenantry.   Thus it was that Calum Ruadh, although a tenant [ » read more ]

From an article in Uig News by Dave Roberts. It appears that shielings were constructed so that one airigh could easily be seen from another, but it is said that very often the girls from a number of shielings would sleep in one building for company. The ancient shieling grounds for Brenish, Islivig and Mangersta were way beyond Raonasgail valley, in the moors north of Loch Craobhaig, at Fidigidh. The people of Carnish had their shielings by Loch Raonasgail, and at Ceann Chuisil. There are also [ » read more ]

Dolly Doctor wrote in Tales and Traditions of the practice of performing the t-ainmean in the upper end of Uig – evidently the last man to carry it out was a Mackinnon, grandfather of Dolly Doctor’s informant, so perhaps towards the end of the 18th century. This offering was made to a god of the sea, so that this powerful deity would send abundance of fishes close inshore where they could be caught from the rocks by rod and line. The performance of the t-ainmean [ » read more ]

The Waterhorse, or Each Uisge, is commonly known throughout the Highlands and Islands as a dreadful creatures that lives in dark lochans and feasts on human flesh. They can take any shape, and while they most frequently emerge from the water as stallions, ready to carry away to the depths any human they encounter, they also appear as women or, in this case, young men. The story is from Malcolm Macphail’s notes on “Folklore in the Hebrides” from Folklore, vol viii (p383.) The Each Uisge [ » read more ]

From an article for Uig News by Dave Roberts: John Murdo Maclean’s great grandfather prided himself on knowing every inch of Mealisval. There wasn’t a nook or cranny that he hadn’t investigated, and not a spot that he couldn’t return to the next day or even the next year, with pinpoint accuracy. If you were working sheep on the hill, it was essential to have an intimate knowledge of the terrain. Mealisval is notorious for quickly disappearing into a cold, thick, all enveloping ‘cheo’ and [ » read more ]

From Rev William Matheson’s History of the Macaulays: The tradition among some of his descendants today is that Dòmhnall Càm was the least formidable of his father’s sons in point of physical strength.  It is related, for example, that, when at archery practice near his home above one end of Traigh na Clibhe, he was the only one of his brothers who could not make his arrow carry to the bluff at the opposite end of the beach.  But it is added that what he [ » read more ]