[singlepic=969,382] 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. More than two hundred men perished. Translated by Maggie Smith. [...]
Read more →“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 the chairman, Councillor John [...]
Read more →New to our bookshop are some numbered and signed copies of a recent limited publication by David SD Jones entitled Salmon and Sea Trout Angling on Lewis and Harris, Past and Present. The book looks at the fish, principle rivers, fishing hotels, associations, notable anglers and recorded catches throughout the two islands. The Fhorsa. Considered [...]
Read more →To see the full size images, you need to enable javascript in your browser. The remains of the old school at Crowlista (with Forsnaval behind). There is a tradition of there having been a Gaelic school in the village, and documents indicate that one was established there in 1837-8 (though we don’t know for how [...]
Read more →Hector Maclean, who wrote to his sister Annie (Nurse Ruadh) from the Transvaal in 1902, died of enteric fever five months later. From the Highland News (?), 1903: Sad Death of a Young Man. Information has been received at Crowlista, Uig, from Heidleberg, South Africa, of the death from enteric fever of Hector Maclean, a [...]
Read more →[singlepic=585,426] Annie Maclean, Nurse Ruadh, was born to 12 Crowlista in 1872 and served as district nurse in Uig before taking up the post in Tarbert, where she worked until her death in 1940, and was much loved. The following is from the Stornoway Gazette: It was with deep regret that we learned of the [...]
Read more →Thanks to Roddy Maclean for the scans and Donald Maciver for the names. Those marked * are still living in 2009. To see the full size images, you need to enable javascript in your browser. Back Row: 1. Alexander Macleod Crowlista 2. *Malcolm J Macleod 8 Aird 3. John A Maciver 10 Crowlista (later 8 [...]
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 [...]
Read more →See also the transcript.
Read more →A letter from Hector Maclean of Crowlista, serving in the Transvaal, South Africa, to his sister Annie in Glasgow in 1902. Hector died in South Africa early in 1903 of fever – more of which shortly. SAC Station Draaifontein 278 20.9.02 My dear sister, Received your welcome Letter, glad to see you were well and [...]
Read more →An further extract from the unpublished memoirs of Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, born Kinlochresort in 1887. Here he tells of how the family came to be at Kinlochresort, and also how they left it for the gamekeeper’s house at Uig Lodge. His account of the pleasures of Traigh Uig is here. My father was a [...]
Read more →An extract from the unpublished memoirs of Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, son of the gamekeeper Roderick Mackenzie. AJ was born in 1887 in Kinlochresort and moved with his family to the keeper’s house at Uig Lodge, where he began at Crowlista School. In May 1892 after the spring holidays, I began my formal education. I [...]
Read more →[singlepic=269,303] An account, from the Gaelic, by Christina MacDonald, 25 Crowlista, of her memories of packing the barrels at the herring industry. The picture above is of unidentified Lewis girls at the herring in an unknown port. See the original Gaelic version here. When you went to the herring for the first time, you had [...]
Read more →Seo mar a dh’innis Cairistiona Dhòmhnallach, 25 Crabhlastadh mar a bhiodh i a dol chun an iasgaich na h-oige. See the English translation here. Nuair a bhiodh sinn a dol a dh’fhalbh chun a Sgadain airson a’ chiad uair dh’fheumadh sinn an toiseach Màighstear a lorg. ‘S e clann-nighean eile a bhiodh a dèanamh sin [...]
Read more →[singlepic=199,500,333] Teacher: Mrs Catherine Finlayson, Ardroil Back: Donald Maciver 8 Crowlista Catherine Ann Macfarlane Balnacille Manse Rachael Mackay 4 Timsgarry Peter M Matheson 24 Crowlista Front: Agnes Macfarlane Bailenacille Manse Jessie Matheson 24 Crowlista Alex M Matheson 24 Crowlista Anna Finlayson 1 Ardroil Dinah Macfarlane Bailenacille Manse.
Read more →Late 1940s. Donald Alec Matheson 22 Crowlista Alexander Macleod 13 Crowlista Alex George Macleod 13 Crowlista Roderick Maclean 8 Timsgarry Murdo Nicolson 1 Crowlista Donald Maclean 15 Crowlista
Read more →Dol’ol at the loom (photo by John Blair). From an article for Uig News by Dave Roberts: After the First World War there were ex-servicemen who had lost a hand, and one of the reasons for introducing the Hattersley domestic semi-automatic treadle powered loom to the island, was to give them an opportunity to make [...]
Read more →From the Stornoway Gazette, 16 March 1951; a report of a public meeting in Uig, ending with an indication of the state of the economy in 1951, compared to the ‘fat’ war years. Wool Scheme Opposed:– A meeting of West Uig crofters was held at Crowlista P School to discuss the wool marketing scheme. It [...]
Read more →Donald Maciver was born in Crowlista in 1857, son of John Maciver, the Gaelic schoolmaster and missionary, and they lived in Ness and then South Lochs. Donald also became a teacher, at Lemreway (see the school log), Breasclete and latterly Bayble. The family had come from Carnish, just across the sands, which had been cleared [...]
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, [...]
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