This year’s entries to the FilmG Gaelic Shorts competition include (as usual) several with Uig connections, including an atmospheric look around the Established Church at Baile na Cille, just prior to its imminent renovation.
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We’ve been recording the abundant pew graffiti in Baile na Cille church – it’s a common phenomenon, evidently. Here are some thoughts on the motivation behind the scratching.
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Baile na Cille Church is in private ownership now and renovation work will start fairly soon, but with the public opening as part of Doors Open Days we’ve had an opportunity to explore the building in some detail. One of the most personal touches is the large variety of names and initials carved on the pews by (mostly) boys.
Read more →Ladies of Uig Rev Macfarlane and John Maciver Presentation to Mrs MacFarlane Rev MacFarlane and the Kirk Session
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A fine photo of Baile na Cille kirk session. Taken in 1976 at the 25th Anniversary presentation for Rev Angus Macfarlane, Baile na Cille. Rev Macfarlane retired in 1979, at which point the congregation merged with that of the Miavaig church.
Read more →[singlepic id=1220 w=600 float=center] The cemetery at Baile na Cille, on a low rise projecting onto the Uig Sands just below the old manse, is oval in shape, approximately 33m by 40m and bound by a retaining wall. Within are numerous low, unmarked stones, 34 inscribed stones, and the outline of walls at the highest [...]
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Baile na Cille Church in Uig will be opened to the public for two days in September as part of the 21st Doors Open Days event in Scotland.
Read more →A letter from the minister at Baile na Cille, Norman Morrison, to a committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, dated 15th October 1749. Reverend Sir, In return to the queries sent to us from your committee appointed by the late General Assembly for preparing a plan for the augmentation of ministers’ [...]
Read more →In 1909 the United Free Church congregation was worshipping in the old leaking Free Church. Work began on a new building in 1913 and they endured a summer of outdoor worship before the new church was opened.
Read more →“When I was born, and for the period of 23 years after, the whole inhabitants of the parish were sunk in dark ignorance of God. There was not so much as a form of Godliness in the whole place. Wickedness of all descriptions committed in broad daylight “
Read more →George Gillies, residing at Grista [Erista], and John Maclean, residing at Fimisgarry [Timsgarry], in the parish of Uig and Island of Lewis, accused of having broken into the parish church of Uig, and stolen therefrom a waterproof coat, some carpenters’ tools, and a pane of glass, pleaded not guilty.
Read more →[singlepic id=1167 w=200 float=left] We’ve looked before at the remarkable Angus of the Mountain. The little stories surrounding his life and faith are numberous – here are a few more abridged from Macfarlane’s Men of the Lews (1924): His mental constitution was not of gun-metal. It was weak and of the wool-gathering order. People said [...]
Read more →Angus nam Beann was a well-known figure in Uig at the time of the Revivals, and ever since. The following is from John Macleod’s History of the Church in Uig. Angus MacLeod’s father was a shepherd in the hills of Uig towards the border with Harris, and this is where Angus was born. So it [...]
Read more →The renowned naturalist William MacGillivray was born in Aberdeen in 1796 and studied and worked most of his life there or in Edinburgh, but he had a Harris connection through his father and spent much of his childhood at Northton in South Harris (where the MacGillivray Centre now bears his name). As a young man, [...]
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A photo of the Rev Norman Morrison, with his wife, sister (behind him) and children. Rev Morrison was minister at Baile na Cille from 1931 to 1950. He wasn’t the first of that name in Uig; the third known minister in Uig was also Norman Morrison, 1742 to 1777, who was a grandson of John Morrison, tacksman at Bragar – known in the archives as Indweller.
Read more →Rev Alexander Macleod arrived in Uig 1824 and evidently had a powerful influence on his congregation. In the first years of his ministry a number of stories arose demonstrating the (new) piety and upright behaviour of the people of Uig – perhaps exaggerating somewhat the change that had been brought about. In any case Uig [...]
Read more →Hugh Munro was minister at Baile na Cille for 46 years, until his death on 1 May 1823. He was replaced the following year by Alexander Macleod, but there was nearly a different minister in Uig, which, given Rev Macleod’s strong attachment to and leading role in the evangelist movement that was just beginning to [...]
Read more →[singlepic=936,388] The cause of my sadness is the mill’s decline, Not getting what I need for my baking. -Calum Ruairidh Bhàin (Calum Mackay, Bragar) The Norse Mills of Lewis by Dr Finlay Macleod (Acair, 2009) is surely the most comprehensive volume imaginable on our horizontal mills – including their construction and use, context in world [...]
Read more →From the Stornoway Gazette, May 1951. An event of outstanding interest took place in the Parish of Uig on Wednesday, 16th May, when the new Free Presbyterian Church at Miavaig was opened. The Ref JA Macdonald, Applecross, the former minister of Uig, conducted divine worship and preached an able discourse from Matt xxi, v13. The [...]
Read more →From Sanais, 1988, with some additions.
The first school in the Western Isles was founded shortly after 1610, when the Seaforth Mackenzies gained possession of the island, and in 1680, a report by ‘Indweller’ says that the Seaforth school had done much good, not only for Lewis but also for the adjacent isles. Other schools followed.
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