Enormous thanks to Angus Macdonald for this splendid map of Uig, with Norse place names.
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Comann Eachdraidh Uig
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Vikings
Uig in Old Norse
by admin • 18 January 2012 • Placenames, Vikings • 2 Comments
The Chessmen in New York
by admin • 20 November 2011 • Chessmen, News & Events, Vikings • 1 Comment
Following their Scottish tour, which culminated in a day’s ceilidh in Uig, some of the Chessmen have gone over the water for a winter at the Met.
Read more →Replica Viking ship to be built in Norway
by admin • 1 March 2011 • Viking News, Vikings • 1 Comment
Volunteers are aiming to complete and sail a full-scale replica of Norway’s famed Oseberg ship, one of the best-preserved and most celebrated Viking relics in the world, later this year. The original Oseberg ship can be found in Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum. Builders hope the replica can be used at sea later this year. Enthusiasts working [...]
Read more →Murchadh Ban
by admin • 22 August 2010 • Tales & Traditions, Vikings • 0 Comments
This story comes from the end of the 18th century, but seems to hark back to an earlier time. However it is likely that the Viking element was grafted on later – did Vikings pick up local pilots? And potatoes didn’t arrive in the islands until the middle of the 18th century, and even by [...]
Read more →The Chessmen in the History of the World
by admin • 2 July 2010 • Archaeology, Audio, Chessmen, Vikings • 0 Comments
Last week the Chessmen were featured on the BBC as part of the British Museum’s History of the World in 100 Objects, a superbly imaginative series of short and engaging lectures from Neil Macgregor. Of the Chessman he says: [Bobby] Fischer declared “chess is war on a board”, and at that moment in history it [...]
Read more →The Chessmen Talk (not literally)
by admin • 8 March 2010 • Chessmen, History, News & Events, Vikings • 1 Comment
[singlepic=1081,320,240,,left]Comann Eachdraidh Uig played host last week to a visit from two experts on the Lewis Chessman, who hit the headlines in November with their theories relocating the find-site to Mealista, rather than Ardroil. Dr David Caldwell, Keeper of Scotland and Europe at the National Museum of Scotland, and Dr Mark Hall, curator at Perth [...]
Read more →Mealista v. Ardroil
by admin • 20 February 2010 • Archaeology, Chessmen, Church, History, Land Issues, Placenames, Vikings • 1 Comment
By long and solid tradition in Uig, the spot where the Uig Chessmen were found in 1831 is held to be the Bealach Ban, a hollow in the dunes in Ardroil. In November of last year, a paper by Dr David Caldwell et al in Mediæval Archaeology proposed that, on the evidence of the Ordnance [...]
Read more →What’s Really Known About the Chessmen Findspot
by admin • 15 November 2009 • Chessmen, News & Events, Vikings • 2 Comments
A new study of the Uig Chessmen published last week by Dr David Caldwell et al. in Mediæval Archaeology has been getting a lot of press coverage (for instance on the BBC and in the Stornoway Gazette), particularly for the suggestion that the hoard may not actually have been found in Ardroil. Uig is not [...]
Read more →New Theories on the Uig Chessmen
by admin • 10 November 2009 • Chessmen, News & Events, Vikings • 0 Comments
An article published in Mediaeval Archaeology this week raises some questions about the origins of the Uig Chessmen. From the BBC today: New research has cast doubt on traditional theories about the historic Lewis Chessmen. The 93 pieces – currently split between museums in Edinburgh and London – were discovered on Lewis in 1831. But [...]
Read more →The King Earns his Keep
by admin • 22 February 2009 • Vikings • 0 Comments
[singlepic id=1231 w=240 float=left] Look who’s on the front of the German edition of Bernard Cornwell’s The Lords of the North. It’s always a bit of shock to see our friends out and about. It’s described as “a powerful story of betrayal, romance and struggle, set in an England of turmoil, upheaval and glory. Uhtred, [...]
Read more →Why You Should Never Laugh at a Berserker
by admin • 8 February 2009 • Archaeology, Chessmen, Vikings • 0 Comments
The definitive short guide to our Uig Chessmen, found in Ardroil in 1831, is The Lewis Chessmen, by James Robinson of the British Museum, which addresses aspects of their discovery, design and likely provenance, and also the history of chess. Of our little family of courtly Vikings, the berserkers are the most intriguing. From the [...]
Read more →Talk: Dr Mary Macleod on Vikings, Fri 30 Jan
by admin • 27 January 2009 • News & Events, Vikings • 0 Comments
Dr Mary Macleod, the council archaeologist, will give an illustrated talk in Uig this week on Viking settlement in Scotland with particular reference to the Western Isles, and will also touch on the recently-discovered prehistoric graves on Traigh na Berie, which were excavated last week. Uig Hall, 7.30pm, Friday 30 January. All welcome; tea served; [...]
Read more →The Legend of Thorgunna, a Hebridean Norsewoman
by admin • 25 January 2009 • Church, Tales & Traditions, Vikings • 1 Comment
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 was also given a treatment [...]
Read more →Prehistoric Graves Found in Uig
by admin • 24 January 2009 • Archaeology, Vikings, Weather • 0 Comments
[singlepic=424,366] Susan and Keith Stringer came across evidence of a grave in the dunes above Traigh na Berie, which on excavation was found to contain a crouch burial (in the picture, in the trench at the foot of the stick). From Hebrides News: A human skeleton thought to be 4000 years old has been discovered [...]
Read more →Vikings & Norse Archaeology in the North Atlantic
by admin • 13 January 2009 • Archaeology, News & Events, Vikings • 0 Comments
A new degree-level archaeology module exploring the impact of the Vikings on the North Atlantic region between 700 and 1300 AD begins Tuesday 27 January at Lews Castle College in Stornoway. The course runs for 10 weeks and there are no formal entry requirements. For further information see the college webpage. The course will be [...]
Read more →Theories about the Cave of Swords
by admin • 3 October 2008 • Archaeology, Military & Police, Old Soldiers, Tales & Traditions, Vikings • 1 Comment
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 [...]
Read more →Viking Age Triggered by a Shortage of Wives?
by admin • 18 September 2008 • Archaeology, History, Vikings • 0 Comments
Mirabilis.ca, a source of all sorts of historical news, if there can be such a thing, points to a theory reported on Discovery about the reason for Viking settlements in Britain. We know of course that there was what is described by Ian Armit as a “blending of cultural tradition” in the Western Isles, where [...]
Read more →Hnefatafl
by admin • 11 August 2008 • Chessmen, History, Vikings • 0 Comments
Hnefatafl, or the King’s Table, was played in Northern Europe in the Dark Ages, and popular in Viking lands from about 400AD. Different versions were developed and sets and boards have been found from Ireland to the Ukraine. We’re not aware of any proof that it was played in Uig, but it seems inevitable that [...]
Read more →The Viking Princess and the Seeing Stone
by admin • 9 August 2008 • Tales & Traditions, Vikings • 0 Comments
Lewis tradition maintains that the Brahan Seer was born in Uig, in the vicinity of Baile na Cille, and that his powers of second sight came from a seeing stone he found there. Dolly Doctor gives the following account in Tales and Traditions, based on the version told in the Uig ceilidh-houses: Kenneth’s mother was [...]
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