Mangersta, like most occupied townships in Lewis, was relotted in 1849, with 15 crofts laid out and tenancies and rents allocated. Here we give the full tenant list for 1849-50, with tenancy and family changes up to the (voluntary) clearing of the village in 1872, when the people went mostly to Doune Carloway.
Read more →The Congested Districts Board was established by the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act of 1897, on the model of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, to improve industries and infrastructure in the crofting counties which suffering from overpopulation and poverty (see Powers below). Initially 56 parishes or parts of parishes in the north, west and islands [...]
Read more →
The late 1840s were years of desperation in Lewis (as elsewhere), with much of the population near to starvation and dependent on ‘destitution meal’ from the Proprietor. The solution that presented itself was assisted and effectively compulsory emigration; here are the numbers fixed on for emigration from Uig in 1851.
Read more →To see the full size images, you need to enable javascript in your browser. The late 1840s were years of desperation in Lewis (as elsewhere), with much of the population near to starvation and dependent on ‘destitution meal’ from the Proprietor, Sir James Matheson, who according to the Poor Law Act of 1845 was obliged [...]
Read more →The following list shows the croft valuations a few years after Islivig was relotted (see the 1850 Lotting). In 1858 those who paid under £3 per annum were not named. Name 1855-56 1856-57 1857-58 Malcolm Macaulay £ 3.7.0 £ 3.14.8 Murdo Macaulay (Finlay) £ 3.7.0 £ 3.10.8 Roderick Nicolson £ 2.17.0 £ [...]
Read more →The following is a list of tenants to whom crofts were assigned in 1849-50 when Uig was generally relotted. An initial lotting in 1849 was adjusted in 1850 and this is the latter list. Numbers do not correspond to current croft numbers. No. Tenant Rent Remarks A Angus Smith £ 1.0.0 From Mangersta. Lot next [...]
Read more →The following Islivig births were registered in the Old Parish Register for the Parish of Uig. Birthdates may be actual, or dates of baptism, or mis-remembered dates of birth recorded a year or more later when the child was baptised. This should certainly should not be taken to represent all the children born to a [...]
Read more →A list of the crofting tenants of Islivig in 1891, from estate papers. No. Tenant 1 Donald Macaulay 2 Angus Macaulay 3 Norman Macaulay 4 Wd Mary Macaulay 5 Wd Catherine Macaulay 6 Wd Ann Macaulay 7 Donald Macaulay 8 Norman Macaulay 9 Wd Catherine Macaulay 10 Wd Christina Nicolson
Read more →The following marriages, all involving at least one Islivig family, are extracted from the Old Parish Register of the Established Church in Uig. Not all marriages were registered and the date may refer to the calling of banns, rather than an actual wedding. Donald Macaulay son of Murdoch Macaulay and Peggy Macaulay at Islivig, to [...]
Read more →List of tenants at Islivig from Estate papers, 1867. No. Tenant Rent 1 John Maciver £ 1.16.0 2 Angus Macaulay £ 1.14.6 3 Norman Macaulay £ 1.14.6 4 John Macaulay, Sailor £ 2.2.0 5 Malcolm Macaulay £ 4.1.0 6 Murdo Macaulay £ 3.12.0 7 Kenneth Macaulay £ 2.19.0 8 Wd Catherine Macaulay £ 3.0.6 9 [...]
Read more →After years of patient waiting, Breanish township has at long last been linked to the world outside by telephone.
Read more →Islivig was described in Uig: A Hebridean Parish, in 1959: In Brenish and Islivig the soils are mainly peaty, becoming wetter in the west. Where visible the subsoil is gravel or stony boulder clay. There are no trees or shrubs and vegetation consists of marshy grass moors in the Mealista area with a considerable amount [...]
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 [...]
Read more →
The Uilleam Dubh has been a Scarp boat for many years, and the suggestion was that she was built in Brenish, and/or by a Malcolm Maclean of the famous Maclean boatbuilders of Uig, and called after her builder or owner.
Read more →[singlepic=1042,724] Miss Ina Macdonald, Ardbheag, is of course now our Mrs Ina Macdonald, Islivig. More on the side schools here.
Read more →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 the book. A mile or [...]
Read more →From the Inverness Courier of 25 March 1846: A correspondent has favoured us with some further particulars relative to the late patriarchal Celt, John Martin, who died at Urgay [Urgha], Island of Harris, at the ripe age of 112. The old man was able to walk about till within twenty-four hours of his death. When [...]
Read more →From Islands Postal History Series, No 3: Lewis, by James A Mackay. Published by the author, 1978. Miavaig The Gaelic name Miabhaig is derived from an earlier Norse name whose vik ending signified a bay – in this case one of the many inlets of West Loch Roag on the west coast of Lewis. A [...]
Read more →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 on the crofts which [...]
Read more →
Brenish and Islivig are old settlements, never cleared. In both, the sites of the original clachans can still be seen clustered around the mouths of their respective streams. The houses are now situated at the east end of the crofts, near to the road…
Read more →