From West Over Sea (1953) by DDC Pochin Mould. Near the sheep fank on the flank of Benisval there is, so they tell me, a stone commemorating the visit of Lord Campbell, Lord Chief Justice in the 1850s. When I splashed through the Kinloch Resort river, I crossed from Harris into Lewis, and it was Lord Campbell’s boundary that I went over. There was a long dispute concerning the boundary line between Harris and Lewis in this part of the country. Along Loch Seaforth there [ » read more ]

Miss Ina Macdonald, Ardbheag, is of course now our Mrs Ina Macdonald, Islivig.  More on the side schools here.

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 Doctor in his Tales and Traditions, which suggests that it’s the Reverend who found the bones in the 1920s.  As we’ve just been to Tealasbhaigh, it’s worth having again.  The composite above shows the entrance [ » read more ]

Another bit from DDC Pochin Mould’s West Over Sea, published in 1953; at the time even quite substantial and central townships like Geshader were just getting their proper roads. Crossing the moor between Loch Raonasgail and the yellow road by the sea at Uig, I had plenty of opportunity to consider living without roads.  Probably the first thing one notices is the silence.  In a roadless community the noises that make up the background of our road-driven civilisation are lacking: the swish of tyres on [ » read more ]

From research undertaken by Maggie Smith for Hebridean Connections and the Stornoway Gazette.  See also Part II and Part III. After the Education Act of 1872, children throughout the country were entitled to an education, and a side school could be provided in remote districts where there were at least three children; a single junior teacher, under the supervision of a village school, would teach in a building or room temporarily provided for the purpose.  If there were insufficient pupils, a single child or two [ » read more ]

Another extract from Uig, A Hebridean Parish, compiled by HA Moisley and members of the Geographical Field Group, Universities of Glasgow and Nottingham.  This section was written by Pamela M Gough; see also the further detail on life in the townships. Soils are generally deep, and there are few rocky outcrops on the crofts which are fairly level.  In Brenish and Islivig, the soils are mainly peaty, becoming wetter in the west.  Where visible the subsoil is gravel or stony boulder clay.  In Mangersta the [ » 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 ]

This version of the story comes from the CE Uig annals but we haven’t (yet) identified who the storyteller is. Now, another story I heard from an old minister in Ullapool about Mac an t-Sronaich.  We’re in Ullapool, 30 miles away from Garve where Mac an t-Sronaich came from originally.  Stronach is a common name on the west coast and his family had a small boarding house in Ullapool, where people would come and stay with them.  This is where Mac an t-Sronaich was living, and [ » read more ]