Valtos (from the Norse vald hus, house of one in power) is a large and well-populated village on the Valtos peninsula. The main settlement was once on high ground overlooking Cliff bay, where there is archaeological evidence and local knowledge of a temple and burial ground (roughly on the site of the old walled cemetery), [...]
Read more →Another item from the endlessly entertaining Lewsiana, by W Anderson Smith (1874/1886). From the fact that every crofter owns a few sheep, wool is naturally the first and most important article in use [in clothing]. This is often torn from the animal, Shetland fashion, in place of being clipped. More wretched looking creatures than these [...]
Read more →[singlepic=665,357] Teacher: Sophie Macsween (Macleod). Thanks to Mary Peggy Mackay for putting the names to the faces. Back 1. John Angus Mackay 7 Reef 2. Dan Buchanan 7 Valtos 3. DA Morrison 13 Reef 4. Calum Ian Buchanan 8 Valtos 5. Archie Macdonald, FP Manse Middle 6. John Andrew Buchanan 7 Valtos 7. Donald C [...]
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 →[singlepic=633,357] Photo taken by Aneas Maclean, nephew of Mrs Jessie Macdonald 24 Valtos, while on student placement. We’ll expect the gaps to be filled in promptly: if not, I’ll be waylaying the others. Teachers: Mrs Alexina Macleod, Shawbost Mr Donald John Macleod (Inky), Carloway Front Row: 1. Calum Macdonald (Titch) 22 Valtos 2. Donella Matheson [...]
Read more →New to our bookshop are some numbered and signed copies of a recent limited publication by David SD Jones entitled Salmon and Sea Trout Angling on Lewis and Harris, Past and Present. The book looks at the fish, principle rivers, fishing hotels, associations, notable anglers and recorded catches throughout the two islands. The Fhorsa. Considered [...]
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 [...]
Read more →[singlepic=594,500] Peggy Maclennan was born in 1888 to 24 Valtos; she married Donald Maclennan, 15 Kneep, in 1920 in Glasgow (parents of Kenny, Joan, Christina, Donald F and John, who died in infancy). Her cousin Kenneth Matheson belonged to 6 Aird.
Read more →From Sanais, 1988, with some additions.
The first school in the Western Isles was founded shortly after 1610, when the Seaforth Mackenzies gained possession of the island, and in 1680, a report by ‘Indweller’ says that the Seaforth school had done much good, not only for Lewis but also for the adjacent isles. Other schools followed.
Read more →[singlepic=387,400] This handsome family is, as far as I know, unidentified; the picture comes to us from 17 Valtos.
Read more →From Rev William Matheson’s “History of the Families of Lewis – Smith” published under the pseudonym Mac Gille Chaluim in the Stornoway Gazette in the late 1950s. See a further story of Calum Olach here. There was a noted family of Smiths of Valtos, Uig, for whom it has been claimed that they were of [...]
Read more →Many thanks once again to Robin Forrest for providing these wonderful, and previously unknown to us, pictures of Uig in 1964-65, taken by his father Sam Forrest on Land Court business. Some things have changed… some have not!
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 →This unidentified sailor with the Naval Division is believed to be one of those interned in Holland in 1914. The picture was taken at Groningen, and comes to us from 10 Mangersta. Is he one of the Uigeachs listed below who spent the war in “HMS Timbertown”? The following was written by Dave Roberts for [...]
Read more →Mirabilis.ca, a source of all sorts of historical news, if there can be such a thing, points to a theory reported on Discovery about the reason for Viking settlements in Britain. We know of course that there was what is described by Ian Armit as a “blending of cultural tradition” in the Western Isles, where [...]
Read more →[singlepic=297,342] Teacher Mary Ann Maciver 11 Kneep, later married Norman Macdonald Reef (Gruaigen) Back: 1. James Macrae Miavaig (Seumas na Cost) 2. Angus Smith 20 Valtos (Prof) 3. Malcolm Mackay 13 Kneep (Kiman) 4. Angus Macdonald 16 Uigen (Gurason) 5. Alasdair Macleod 39 Cliff (Sandy Post) 6. Angus John Macdonald 8 Kneep (Max) Middle: 7. [...]
Read more →[singlepic=298,354] Back: 1. 2. Malcolm Maclean 26 Valtos (Calum Beag Garbh) 3. Louis Macdonald 11 Reef (Louis na Scallag) 4. Donald Matheson 39 Cliff (Domhnall a Bheiceir) 5. Murdo Macleod 2 Reef (Murchadh Dodge) 6. Donald Macleod 2 Reef (Buganach) 7. Duncan Macdonald 22 Valtos (Donnchadh Silver) Middle: 8. Donald Macdonald 16 Uigen 9. William [...]
Read more →The Napier Commission came to Miavaig on 4 June 1883, led by Lord Napier, and took evidence from Murdo Maclean, fishcurer in Valtos, Donald Matheson Kneep and Norman Morrison Brenish, and from the Chamberlain, William Mackay. Among the grievances enumerated by the crofters were issues to do with the keeper and shooting tenants in the [...]
Read more →The Rose was built c1905 by John Macaulay, boatbuilder, of 19 Brenish. She was first taken to Kneep, then Reef, and latterly belonged to a consortium of Valtos men. In 2007 she was gifted to the Comann Eachdraidh, and we commissioned another John Macaulay, boatbuilder, from Harris, to restore her to her former glory. The [...]
Read more →