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 ]

“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 Maciver, there was a scramble by the other districts in the island to claim the houses. The houses had originally been allocated to West Uig in the hope that they [ » 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To mark the expectation that our new Enaclete bypass will opening soon (surely), here’s a further extract from the unpublished memoirs of Rev Col AJ Mackenzie, who was born at Kinresort in 1887, son of the gamekeeper Roderick Mackenzie.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 years later the young Alex John made his first journey to Stornoway, accompanying his parents; his mother was needing the town doctor. In those days there was only one way [ » read more ]

James Shaw Grant, in one of his many books about the folk and tales of the Islands, reckoned that the evidence available does not support the idea that Mac an t-Srònaich was the vicious murderer of popular legend.  Mac an t-Srònaich was a native of Garve on the mainland, and is reckoned to have killed a girl (perhaps his sister) at his family’s inn in Ullapool before fleeing to Lewis, where he hid out in the hills of Uig and terrorised the population before being [ » read more ]

Stornoway Gazette, 30 December 1949. It is many years since there was a fishing boat of any size in Uig but four Uigeachs arrived in Stornoway on Tuesday of last week with a 45-foot motor-boat which they have purchased in Inverness. The boat will take her new name from the initials of the four owners – KJ Mackay, who is the skipper, and the three brothers L, D and A Macdonald – giving the name ‘Kilda’. The ‘Kilda’ is powered by a 36-horsepower diesel engine [ » read more ]

The Barlow sailed from Lewis in 1851 with 287 emigrants on board, one of several emigrant ships that year.  Like the Marquis of Stafford it carried people who had been removed from their land and offered paid passage to Canada by the proprietor, but unlike the Marquis, which sailed in May, the Barlow was delayed and in June of that year there were many who had already sold their stock and who were getting desperate to leave.  The following is from the 1851 Diary of the Chamberlain, [ » read more ]

A letter from the Rev Alexander Macleod (formerly Established Church minister in Uig, who had taken his congregation to the Free Church in 1843 and left Uig shortly thereafter for Lochalsh) to Lady Hood, his previous patron.  See also a letter from 1824. Lochalsh 19th March 1844 My very dear and much respected friend, I had the pleasure of receiving your friendly letter in Nov. I was sorry to hear that you have been since Easter unwell but happy to learn that you have got better. [ » read more ]

Photo by rojabro. This isn’t strictly an Uig tale, though one episode takes place on the Flannans, and there is a suggestion that Macpherson may be the grandfather of Kenneth Macpherson the catechist from Bayhead, who married Ann Smith from Strome and Valtos and lived in Ness.   It’s offered in the hope that someone may be able to shed some light on the story, identify the house of the Misses Crighton, confirm or (more likely) dismiss the connections to the Bayhead family, or identify the source, [ » read more ]

Peigi an Irish (nee Macritchie, b1890) from 8 Kneep was married twice; her first husband Murdo Mackay was killed in the Great War, and her second was Donald Matheson (Buckie) from 4 Valtos.  She was the tenant of 5 Reef, after her father.  Murdo Macdonald (Morgan, b1866) was born to 4 Kneep and took 15 Reef. Note the footless stockings.  Emily Macdonald writes in Twenty Years of Hebridean Memories (1939): The women walk over the moor and often on the road, barefoot, and this is very sensible [ » read more ]

Pic: some of the worthies of Uig and Stornoway at the ceremony. TB Macaulay, president of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Montreal and descendent of the Macaulays of Uig, visited Lewis in the summer of 1929 to open the new Municipal Buildings in Stornoway (replacing those destroyed in the fire of 1918) and to continue various development projects he had already begun, including the co-operative Macaulay Farm at Arnish. They arrived on 15 June and stayed at Lews Castle as guests of the community, [ » 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 had a Ford 8.  There was also the Morris van that brought the mails.  Motorbikes were driven by Donald Macaulay, no.19 Brenish; he had an O.E.C. and John Morrison of [ » read more ]

Willie Matheson (Mac Gille Chaluim) wrote in his Families of Lewis series that Nicolson was “perhaps the oldest surname in Lewis” and that the Macleods came into possession of the island by marriage into the family.  The name disappears and does not surface again until the 18th century, when Angus Nicolson is on record as a joint-tacksman of Little Bernera and later sole tacksman of Kirivig.  His younger son Donald had the tack at Kirivig after him and the elder son,  John, was tacksman of Carnish and [ » read more ]