Friday, February 26th, 2010
The Reverend Aulay Macaulay was born in Brenish in 1669, son of Dugald, grandson of Angus Beag Macaulay, he of the big stone and the critical wife, and brother of Donald Òg. Aulay started his career in Tiree and Coll and was minister at Scarista, Harris from 1712 until his ...
Posted in church, genealogy, people, tales | No Comments »
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
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 ...
Posted in archaeology, church, history, land issues, placenames, vikings | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
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The Uilleam Dubh on the pier at Hushinish; photo by John J Maclennan.
This little story revealed itself in stages: thanks to John J Maclennan especially, and to Finlay Maciver, Shonnie Buchanan and Calum Maclennan Govig for piecing it together. The Uilleam Dubh has been a Scarp boat for many years, ...
Posted in fishing | 3 Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Just now I am up in a cold land
And a message has arrived for us to go to sea,
That the ships are now assembled and when night comes
We have to move off with them.
-Murdanie Macritchie
This song was written by Petty Officer Murdanie Macritchie, Brenish, whilst serving during the Second War ...
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
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Translated from an interview with An Geal, John Maclennan, born 1896 at 15 Kneep and married at 4 Aird, Uig. The Admiralty ship the Iolaire taking servicemen home to Lewis grounded on the Beasts of Holm outside Stornoway, on the 1st of January 1919. Almost two hundred men perished. Translated ...
Posted in WWI, military & police | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 7th, 2009
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 ...
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
From Mary Beith's Deanamh a' Leighis column in the West Highland Free Press, 3 October 2008. The ballan, a cow's horn used for cupping against the skin to draw out impurities and cure sciatica and rheumatism, was well known in Lewis and continued into living memory. One such ballan used ...
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Thursday, July 16th, 2009
From Lewsiana (1874, 1886) by W Anderson Smith. The school referred to seems to be the old blackhouse school in Islivig, which was replaced in the 1880s by the new public school at the north end of Brenish - but Smith's passage seems to come from the earlier edition of ...
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Sunday, June 28th, 2009
"The wanderlust of the Uigeach", from the Stornoway Gazette, 30 December 1949.
Swedish timber houses allocated to West Uig are not to be built there. Owing to the depopulation of the district there is very little chance of finding tenants. When this news was given to the Lewis District Council by ...
Posted in history, land issues | No Comments »
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
The BBC Alba series A Reir na h-Aimsir, which looks at how weather affects us, was this week in Lewis, looking at how traditional blackhouse architecture has been adapted for a new house in Brenish, amongst other things. There's a trio of well-known Uig bodachs on local weather lore at ...
Posted in gàidhlig, video | 4 Comments »
Saturday, March 14th, 2009
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 ...
Posted in crofting, land issues, life in uig, wool & weaving | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
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From Uig, A Hebridean Parish, 1960. The photo of Brenish is by Sam Forrest, taken on land court business in 1965. More of his pictures in the gallery.
Brenish has a south-westerly aspect whilst Islivig faces north-west; in both the elevation of the crofts decreases seawards from about 125 ...
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Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
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 ...
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Saturday, February 7th, 2009
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 ...
Posted in education | 7 Comments »
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Thanks to Murdag, and to Finlay for the identification.
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Posted in archive photos | No Comments »
Stornoway, UNITED KINGDOM