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’ stipends as far as they concern this Parish of Uig, the following report serves to inform you:- First. That the stipends of this Parish of Uig amount to 800 marks [ » 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 is not difficult to understand why everybody in the area knew his as Aonghas na Beann, Angus of the Hills. Angus was caught up in the great Revival in uig [ » 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, he returned to spend 1817-1818 there, and his diaries of that period have been published as A Hebridean Naturalist’s Journal (Acair 1996). In October of 1817 he and a party [ » read more ]

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.  He studied at Aberdeen and St Andrews and from his ordination in 1742, spent his whole working life in Uig.  His church was [ » 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 was one of several places in the Highlands and Islands that became celebrated for the revival around that time.  The following account comes from the History of Revivals of Religion [ » 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 spread throughout the island, might have made for a very different history of the church in Lewis.  The following notice appeared in the Edinburgh Gazette on 2 July 1823: The [ » 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 church was packed to its utmost capacity. Nine buses carrying nearly 300 friends from the different congregations in Lewis and Harris attended the service. Uig hospitality on a generous scale [ » 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.  It was the ‘the great good of gentlemen’s sons and daughters and to the comfort and good of the people’.  Martin Martin reported in 1695 that English and Latin were taught. In [ » read more ]

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 ]

The Highland News, 5 July 1913: On Wednesday, 2nd inst., the Rev Allan Mackenzie, parish minister of Uig, received a deputation from his congregation who presented him with a handsome new trap and carriage rug.  Mr John Matheson Aird said that when the congregation understood how much the minister required a new trap, they entered most heartily into the proposal.  The minister had given his services ungrudgingly for the good of the parish in the post, and they wished to assist him to do so [ » read more ]

David Watson was ordained as minister of Uig in 1845 but as the congregation had mostly migrated to the Free Church, his Church remained largely empty. He was at odds with the people and the estate, as the following notes in the 1851 diary (published by Acair) of the Chamberlain John Munro Mackenzie attest: Thursday 13 February Walked to the Manse of Uig and found Mr Watson busy planting potatoes and clearing his arable land of Stones with a number of men employed. Went to [ » read more ]

A letter from the Rev Alexander Macleod (formerly Established Church minister in Uig, who had taken his congregation to the Free Church in 1843 and left Uig shortly thereafter for Lochalsh) to Lady Hood, his previous patron.  See also a letter from 1824. Lochalsh 19th March 1844 My very dear and much respected friend, I had the pleasure of receiving your friendly letter in Nov. I was sorry to hear that you have been since Easter unwell but happy to learn that you have got better. [ » read more ]

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 watching the flocks by night, and as she sat on Cnoc Eothail, which looks down on the ancient mound [the cemetery at Baile na Cille] and commands a wide view [ » read more ]

 The ladies who did the tea when Rev Angus Macfarlane retired from Baile na Cille in 1970. Back: 1. Catriona Macdonald PO Miavaig 2. Dollag Buchanan 9 Mangersta 3. Mary Macleod 10 Geshader 4. Mary Macleod Lochcroistean 5. Nan Buchanan Brenish 6. Christine Maclean 3 Brenish 7. Christina Matheson 2 Ardroil 8. Chrissie Matheson 2 Ardroil 9. Mamie Macdonald Langavat Miavaig 10. Peggy Morrison 16 Brenish 11. Mary Ann Morrison 13 Mangersta 12. Mary Maclean 5 Aird Front: 13. Catriona Matheson 6 Ardroil 14. Peggy [ » read more ]

After Rev Alexander Macleod and the entire congregation left the established Church in 1843 for the Free Church, the manse at Baile na Cille was vacant for nearly two years. In 1845, David Watson, a native of Croy, educated in Aberdeen, was received as a probationer and required to preach in Uig on 16 February 1845, although on account of the difficulty in obtaining a ferry from Callanish to Uig (the whole area being strongly “Free”) he preached on 4 March at the house of the [ » read more ]