From a statement lodged with the Crofters Commission by the Estate management in November 1888, showing alterations made over farms in Lewis, with the occupancy and rent of each during the period 1844-1888. Mealista, Keannhusly and Island Mealista 1844-49 Alex and John MacRae £80.0.0 1850 do. £105.0.0 1860 do. £120.0.0 1870 John Mitchell £130.0.0 1886-87 do. (lands taken off) £85.0.0 1888 do. £85.0.0 Mangersta 1873 Donald and Malcolm Macleod £122.0.0 1880 do. £95.0.0 1888 do.   Ardroil 1844-48 Donald Macaulay £100.0.0 1849 John and James [ » read more ]

An account of the cattle sales at Ardroil from the People’s Journal, 27 September 1958. In the Outer Isles the folk who make their living off the land can’t come to the market. So the market goes to them.  And the cattle sales may well decide whether the crofter and his family have a good year or a bad year.

Ardroil (Eadar Dha Fhadhail – ‘between two fords’) lies on the southwestern side of Uig Sands. The area now occupied more or less by the village once contained five townships: Capadal, Peighinn Dhomhnaill (Pennydonald), Baile Nicol, Baile Ghriasaich and Baile Ghobhainn. These were cleared by Stewart Mackenzie, the proprietor of the island, in the late 1830s to make way for the farm known as Ardroil.  Neighbouring Carnish was later cleared by the Mathesons to be added to the farm. The Capadal families moved mostly to [ » read more ]

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 certainly seemed like it. But then it always has. If all games are to some degree a surrogate for violence and war, no game so closely compares to a set-piece [ » read more ]

Chrissie Matheson 2 Ardroil, and Chirsty Bell, Scoddaidh Mor and Scoddaidh Beag, 5 Ardroil, with Suainebhal behind.

Intriguing, isn’t it. There will be a full film in due course. Script by Eric Macdonald; produced by Theatre Hebrides.

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 Museum, were on the island to make arrangements for the touring Chessmen’s visit in 2011. Their proposal that the findspot was a souterrain on the site of a supposed nunnery [ » read more ]

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 Survey Place Names book compiled by contractors from local information in the 1850s, the findspot may have been a few miles away at Mealista. Anna Mackinnon, Ardroil, wrote an initial [ » read more ]

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 the research suggests they may have been used in both chess and Hnefatafl – a similar game that was popular in medieval Scandinavia. It also casts doubt on the traditional [ » read more ]

Pictures also viewable here if the slideshow doesn’t work for you. Thanks to Iain Watson for these pictures and his memories of scout camps in Uig. The pictures were all collected by Don Laing, who used to be a Scout Leader in Stornoway for many years from the early 60′s until he died in 2000. Over the years he had collected several hundred scouting pictures; when he died his wife Mavis gave me the box. The Scouts used to go to Uig for most of [ » read more ]

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 ]

Fearchar (Farquhar) Macdonald, son of Angus, was about born about 1809 at Capadal, roughly on the site of 3 Ardroil. In 1832 he joined the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a “slooper” – a crewman on HBC decked vessels.  According to the Company’s personal records, he boarded the Prince Rupert IV on 23 June 1832 for a passage from London to York Factory, on the west shore of the bay, where he arrived on 24 August.  He worked at York until 1834, travelled overland to Fort [ » read more ]

Uig is a hive of activity this afternoon.

From Uig, A Hebridean Parish, by HA Moisley and the Geographical Field Group, 1960. The crofting population of Uig started the second half of the nineteenth century with far less land than had been occupied by their forebears fifty years before, and, although famine, clearance and emigration had slightly reduced the population between 1841 and 1861 (from 3828 to 3630) thereafter it again increased, reaching 4600 in 1891.  Rising agricultural prices after 1850 favoured farmers and crofters alike but, whilst the farmers prospered, the crofters [ » read more ]

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 book: There are twelve warders, or rooks, all of whom defend themselves with shields decorated in a similar fashion to the knights’.  They are represented as foot soldiers and each [ » read more ]