Tenants of Mealista in 1824 with their rent and accumulated arrears, 1824. Tenant Rent Arrears Malcolm Mackay £ 6.2.4 £ 10.14.10 Angus Macleod £ 6.2.4 Angus Mackinnon £ 6.2.4 £ 16.13.10 Donald Macleod 2nd £ 6.2.4 £ 23.19.5 Finlay Mackay £ 6.2.4 £ 9.12.1½ Norman Morrison £ 6.2.4 £ 28.1.3½ Cain Morrison £ 6.2.4 [...]
Read more →From a statement lodged with the Crofters Commission by the Estate management in November 1888, showing alterations made over farms in Lewis, with the occupancy and rent of each during the period 1844-1888. Mealista, Keannhusly and Island Mealista 1844-49 Alex and John MacRae £80.0.0 1850 do. £105.0.0 1860 do. £120.0.0 1870 John Mitchell £130.0.0 1886-87 [...]
Read more →[singlepic=1081,320,240,,left]Comann Eachdraidh Uig played host last week to a visit from two experts on the Lewis Chessman, who hit the headlines in November with their theories relocating the find-site to Mealista, rather than Ardroil. Dr David Caldwell, Keeper of Scotland and Europe at the National Museum of Scotland, and Dr Mark Hall, curator at Perth [...]
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 →An article published in Mediaeval Archaeology this week raises some questions about the origins of the Uig Chessmen. From the BBC today: New research has cast doubt on traditional theories about the historic Lewis Chessmen. The 93 pieces – currently split between museums in Edinburgh and London – were discovered on Lewis in 1831. But [...]
Read more →[singlepic=844,580,233,,center] A number of archaeological finds collected by the McVean family in Uig and handed to Museum nan Eilean for Treasure Trove are on loan to Uig Museum and currently on display. Several of the artefacts were found at Mealista eroding from a midden on the beach. There is a bronze-age barbed and tanged arrowhead made of [...]
Read more →[singlepic=587,327] From West Over Sea by DDC Pochin Mould, 1953. To go to Uig is to go to a different country from the rest of the Lews, to go from the moors into the mountains, to the great massif which, with the Forest of Harris, builds the highest ground in the Outer Hebrides. It is [...]
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 [...]
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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 →On 4 June 1883 the Napier Commission, chaired by Lord Napier, was in Miavaig to take evidence from crofters and others on issues surround land management and tenancy. Among those interviewed was Norman Morrison, crofter and fisherman at Brenish, aged 61, who stated he had two milk cows, three young beasts, between fifteen and twenty sheep, [...]
Read more →Mealista Island (on the right) from above Molinish, with Scarp in the distance. From “Various Superstitions in the North-West Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Especially in Relation to Lunacy” by Arthur Mitchell AM MD, Deputy Commissioner for Lunacy in Scotland, Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. From the Proceedings of the Society of [...]
Read more →From Gerard Lemmens, who, with his wife, Gillian Lesley Lemmens nee Macleod (great grand daughter of Rev George Macleod of Garrabost), is writing a book about her aunt, entitled “Anna Macleod – from Daughter of the Manse to Professor of Brewing”. Gerard is interested in the genealogy of the Macleods of Pabbay (see also his [...]
Read more →Having been on the losing side in the Jacobite rising of 1715, the Seaforths had to forfeit their lands to the Crown. These were then administered by a body of Commissioners for a number of years (though the Seaforths were eventually allowed to buy them back, because no other buyer could be found.) It appears [...]
Read more →To go with the picture of Sgail and his crowd of excursionists, part of an article from the Uig News: In the 1930s there were four cars in Uig. The two ministers both had cars – one was a Vauxhall. The Doctor had a car and so did Norman Mackay, the Public Assistance Officer – he [...]
Read more →Pictures by Roddy from the Comann Eachdraidh walk out to the shieling at Mealista, one of the last to be built in Uig and still in solid shape, with a fine view over the Atlantic.
Read more →On Saturday, 12 March, 1932, a north westerly gale was blowing and a heavy Atlantic swell was running. When Angus MacKinnon, skipper of the lobster boat, Margaret, saw the inclement weather conditions, he woke his father, Cain, and requested his assistance as an extra hand on the boat. Though retired from fishing, Cain agreed. Angus’s [...]
Read more →The spirit of one of the murdered men from Mealista came to the bedside of his sweetheart and he sang to her the verses of this song – trying to explain to her what a cruel fate had overtaken them. ‘Se nighean mo ghaoil An nighean donn òg, Nam bithinn ri taobh Cha bhithinn fo leòn. [...]
Read more →Excerpt from Tales and Traditions of the Lews, by Donald Macdonald In the long, long ago, there was a boat, manned by Mealista men, that went for a load of timber to the woods in the neighbourhood of Gairloch, and no doubt they had permission to do so, for was not friendship cemented by the [...]
Read more →A letter dated 1836, from Thomas Knox, Chamberlain of the Lews at Seaforth Lodge to JA Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth, MP, the Proprietor. Mealista was cleared in 1838 and the farm let to John Macrae of Kintail (and latterly Harris.) Seaforth Lodge 21 April 1836 Dear Sir I have now the honour to reply to your letter [...]
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