David SD Jones, author of a number of books and articles on gamekeeping and sporting estates, has produced a new history of Morsgail, the 14,000 acre estate extending from Kinlochroag to Hamnway and Loch Langabhat. It was laid out in 1850 by Sir James Matheson and used as a summer residence and to entertain guests [...]
Read more →For next year, Uig Museum will be mounting a display of wedding and christening objects, and we’re very keen to collect any items, stories, photographs and archives connected with these events in Uig over the years. Naturally we don’t need to take ownership of them, unless you’d like to give them a safe home – [...]
Read more →To mark the expectation that our new Enaclete bypass will opening soon (surely), here’s a further extract from the unpublished memoirs of Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, who was born at Kinresort in 1887, son of the gamekeeper Roderick Mackenzie. The family moved in to the gamekeeper’s house at Uig Lodge in 1891, and a few [...]
Read more →Another bit from DDC Pochin Mould’s West Over Sea, published in 1953; at the time even quite substantial and central townships like Geshader were just getting their proper roads. Crossing the moor between Loch Raonasgail and the yellow road by the sea at Uig, I had plenty of opportunity to consider living without roads. Probably [...]
Read more →More about Uig side schools, the small schools provided for a minimum of three pupils in remote parts. From research undertaken by Maggie Smith for Hebridean Connections and the Stornoway Gazette; see also Part I and Part III. Lily Macdonald (Lilidh Mhorsgail), born 1918, whose father Finlay Ferguson worked as under-keeper in Kinresort and then [...]
Read more →From research undertaken by Maggie Smith for Hebridean Connections and the Stornoway Gazette. See also Part II and Part III. After the Education Act of 1872, children throughout the country were entitled to an education, and a side school could be provided in remote districts where there were at least three children; a single junior [...]
Read more →[singlepic=426,480] Further to the Daily Express cartoon about the alien cause of the disappearing loch at Morsgail, here’s a summary of the international coverage, from the Stornoway Gazette, 29 Dec 1959. Few events in Lewis in recent years have aroused such worldwide interest as the “Morsgail Meteorite”. In addition to the planeload of British reporters, [...]
Read more →[singlepic=389,400] Duncan Macdonald, Gisla, was the postman on the Kinlochresort route and his daily walk took him four miles over the moors to the remote village. One day in 1959, he noticed that a loch was missing: the water was simply gone. Much debate ensued over the reason for this but the obvious explanation was [...]
Read more →This account of the gathering of the sheep into the Gisla fank for the clipping was written by David Henderson and first published in the Scots Magazine in August 1995. These large-scale community gatherings are now, sadly, a thing of the past. There are more pictures in the gallery, and of the fank at Loch [...]
Read more →Please join us on Saturday 9 August for an (unguided) walk to the Morsgail Beehives (NB131199) under Sgalabhal. A little information here. Time and weather permitting, we may take in other scant remains of shielings in the area and look for the disappearing loch. Meet at 11am at Morsgail road end and we will take a [...]
Read more →from Donald John Macleod, Enaclete and Aberdeen We look upon the Vikings as seafaring rovers who spent their lives raiding and plundering. However, it is evident from place names that some Vikings settled in Uig where they cultivated the land and tended their sheep and cattle. The following Uig placenames are of interest in this [...]
Read more →Morsgail Lodge was built about 1850 by Sir James Matheson, purportedly for his wife, Mary Ann Perceval, who chose the spot herself. From 1849 Sir James erected wire fencing around a 15,000 acre tract to form the first deer forest in the Outer Hebrides. He was not a sportsman but used Morsgail to entertain guests [...]
Read more →by David SD Jones, February 2008. An illustrated history of the sporting estates, including Morsgail, Scaliscro, Grimersta, Uig & Hamnaway, Garynahine, Eishken, Barvas, Galson and others. Information from estate records and game books, detail of tenants and development programmes, and many photographs previously unknown to the Comann Eachdraidh, coming as they do from private collections [...]
Read more →Stornoway Gazette Friday, 16 January 1920 WEST UIG MAIL SERVICE At a meeting held in Crowlista Public School, Miavaig, Lewis, on Tuesday, 30th December 1919 presided over by Col. Lindsay, Morsgail Lodge,Lord Leverhulme’s representative here, and attended by representatives from all the townships of West Uig, it was resolved to lay before the Postmaster General, [...]
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