From Estate papers, tenants of Kneep (including Uigen and the manse) in 1867. No. Tenant Rent 1 Donald Maclennan (Kenneth) £ 3.6.0 2 Donald Macdonald £ 3.6.0 3 Angus Maciver £ 3.6.0 4 Norman Macdonald (John) £ 4.4.6 5 Donald Matheson £ 4.4.6 6 Widow Chris. Buchanan £ 6.6.0 7 Kenneth Smith (Murdo) £ 3.2.0 8 John Maclean £ 4.6.0 9 Widow Marg. Smith £ 3.1.6 10 Donald Macdonald £ 1.14.0 11 Murdo Maciver £ 4.15.0 12 Alexander Maciver £ 6.3.0 13 Norman Morrison (Pensioner) [ » read more ]

The village of Kneep is situated on the Valtos Peninsula in Uig, between Valtos and Reef.  Crofts 1 to 15 are next to Valtos, and much fragmented (see figure below). The fifteen crofts comprised in the 1950s over 180 arable plots. Crofts 16 to 18 and the Manse are located across the peninsula at what is now considered the village of Uigen. Kneep, like Valtos, was not cleared of its inhabitants to make way for sheepfarming as the villages formed a busy fishing centre. In [ » read more ]

Our wedding collection is growing slowly but surely, and new in today are 1960s wedding telegrams and some lovely photos. Most will be on display in the tearoom within a week or two but meanwhile… Mrs and Mrs Kenny Maclennan, 15 Kneep (Coinneach a’ Loin and Agnes Smith, Lochcroistean – above) were married 22 Nov 1962 at Baile na Cille church, with the reception at the Crown Hotel in Stornoway. Agnes and Kenny’s wedding was also the occasion for which am Bard Bochd wrote Banais [ » read more ]

From the Stornoway Gazette supplement, 18 December 1959. Wedding bells have been ringing in Mangersta for the past year. Cupid started at one end of the village leaving a spate of marriages in his trail. The most recent of these was solemnised in the East Church, Inverness, on the 10th November when Mary Morrison, eldest daughter of the late Mr and Mrs John Morrison, 13 Mangersta, became the bride of Alexander Smith, only son of the late Mr and Mrs William Smith, 9 Kneep. The [ » read more ]

Many thanks to Donald J Macleod of Enaclete and Bridge of Don for his research into the fishing boats of Uig. He adds that these boats used lines and not trawls to catch white fish. It was the end of March and beginning of April that was known as the ‘Hungry month’ in Gaelic as fish did not take the bait. See the chart. I’m not sure where this leaves our Rose (above), apparently SY 47 – more research required. The following Uig fishing boats [ » read more ]

From Dave Roberts, first published in Uig News. Thanks to Andrew McVean for the photo of Carol Knott excavating at Kneep Headland. In the middle of January fragments of human bones began to appear in large numbers on the surface of the sand at Kneep headland. The location was very close to the three burials that were examined there in January 2009. I called the local authority Archaeologist Deborah Anderson to report them. This is what anyone who notices any eroded human bones, or any [ » read more ]

We do fairly harp on the heroic stories of Dòmhnall Càm, the local chieftain, warrior and cattle-plunderer, particularly ruthless in wars against the Morrisons of Ness, but there are some deeply unpleasant traditions about him too. The following is from Capt FWL Thomas’s Traditions of the Macaulays (1880). Donald Cam and the Gow Ban [the Smith of Kneep] were walking together at Kneep, close by a small bothy in which an old blind woman lived. Some of the tenants’ wives were sitting outside the bothy [ » read more ]

The pressmen get their snaps – Lewisfolk provide a little colour Stornoway Gazette, 21 Jan 1944 American press photographers visited the vicinity of St Pauls on Hogmanay to pick up a few colourful pictures of New Year celebrations in London. A group of Lewisfolk gave them their best ‘shots’ of the evening when Pipers Findlater and Grant accompanied some of the lads and lasses totheir stations to see them off. While waiting for the train at Tottenham Court Road and Hyde Park Corner, the pipers [ » read more ]

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 by Maggie Smith. At the end of December 1918, on leave and travelling back to Lewis with other servicemen from Uig, we planned to arrive home on New Year’s day and surprise the families. Approaching [ » read more ]

Dòmhnall Donn (Donald Maciver, b 1862) and his wife Hannah Maclean (b 1874) in Kneep.  Dòmhnall was a noted bard and on his deathbed passed his gift to his great-niece Peigi Eiric Maciver (now Smith).

Thanks to Chrissie for this lovely collection of photos of the Macdonalds at 8 Kneep and their neighbours. They may be easier to view on the Gallery page.

Peigi Eiric Smith, Chirsty Ann Macarthur, Mary and Sandy Smith, in Kneep.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Verses written by Norman “Conter” Macleod, am Bard Bochd and for many years headmaster at Lochcroistean, on the occasion of the marriage of Agnes Smith, Lochcroistean, to Kenny Maclennan, 15 Kneep.  It was sung at the wedding by Kenny Dan Smith, 2 Ungeshader; and the reading here is by Finlay Maciver Carishader (click the arrow). O, nach sinne fhuair an t-urram Bhon a’ chruinneig uasal bhòidheach, Thog ar cridhe le a cuireadh Bhith ‘na cuideachd aig a pòsadh. [ » read more ]

O an strì ann an tìr a phailteis, O am fallas, o am fuachd, Cha robh cùisean mar bha dùil seo idir Le olc is aingidheachd is cruas. – Tìr a Phailteis, Calum Martin The Megantic Outlaw, Donald Morrison, is a folk hero in Quebec and Uig alike and his story is well-known on both sides of the Atlantic. The ruins of his grandfather’s blackhouse can still be seen in Kneep, on the hillside behind the machair and Loch nan Cuilc, but the family left [ » read more ]

Left, Mairead Macdonald (8 Kneep) and right, her sister Chirsty Ann (Ciorstaidh Anna a’Phurpois) at the shieling at Gearraidh Thodail.  The shieling is at NB095290, between Suainebhal and Direadh Beinn, and the Comann Eachdraidh visited it last summer – see pictures. Chirsty Ann was born in 1912 and so this was taken about 1930.  Note the turf roof, patched with an old sail.  The tin vessels were made by the tinkers who resided during the season in Glen Valtos.  The girls hold a quart jug [ » read more ]