St Kilda Centre group launched in Uig

Press release from Buidheann Leasachaidh Ionad Hiort (The St Kilda Centre Development Group), 3 February 2010:

A public meeting in Uig, Lewis, this week formally established an organisation to pursue the remit of creating the St Kilda Centre/Ionad Hiort as a major visitor attraction for the Western Isles.

The initiative follows the selection of a cliff-top site at Mangurstadh, Uig, as the preferred location for the centre after a keenly-contested competition involving several island communities which bid for the centre. The choice of location has been endorsed by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Visit Scotland, Proiseact nan Ealan and the National Trust for Scotland, all of which were represented on a working party which oversaw the selection process.

This week’s well-attended meeting gave enthusiastic backing to the project which still requires to find funding sources. The organisation has adopted the name St Kilda Centre Development Group/Buidheann Leasachaidh Ionad Hiort. Membership is open to all residents of Uig over 16 and associate membership to those who wish to support the group’s aims, wherever they live.

Iain Buchanan, Mangurstadh, was appointed chairman. He said: “We had a well-attended meeting with a good representation from the whole parish. The next step is to engage with all the lead partners to set up a management committee of a St Kilda Trust or Foundation which will be tasked with delivering a world class visitor centre.

“We want to work in conjunction with both Harris and Uist groups to the mutual benefit of all concerned. Not only do we want to be inclusive of these groups but also work with national and international bodies which have similar existing attractions or ongoing World Heritage Site projects”.

A twelve-strong committee was formed with Sarah Egan as secretary and Catriona MacLean as treasurer.

Locally, supporters can join the group at Uig Shop where a form awaits your signature; others are invited to contact the secretary.  A new website will be launched soon, providing detail of the proposal and news of the progress.

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The Reverends Norman Morrison

Rev Norman Morrison, with his wife, sister (behind him) and children.  Rev Morrison was minister at Baile na Cille from 1931 to 1950.

He wasn’t the first of that name in Uig; the third known minister in Uig was also Norman Morrison, 1742 to 1777, who was a grandson of John Morrison, tacksman at Bragar - known in the archives as Indweller.  He studied at Aberdeen and St Andrews and from his ordination in 1742, spent his whole working life in Uig.  His church was the small blackhouse just outside the present Baile na Cille walled garden, near the cemetery.

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Lighthouse Disaster in the Lews

In December 1900, the lighthouse on Eilean Mor in the Flannan Isles, which had only been lit for the first time a year previously, was discovered deserted by its three keepers; their dinner table had been set with cold meat, pickles and potatoes, and a chair was overturned in an obvious urgent departure.  Two sets of oilskins and seaboots were missing, and otherwise the quarters and lamp were in perfect order.  The last record, on a slate ready for transferral to the log book, was dated 15 December.  From the Glasgow Herald, 28 December 1900:

The Northern Lighthouse Board yesterday received intelligence in Edinburgh of a terrible disaster that had occurred on the Flannan Islands, which are about 44 miles west of the Butt of Lewis, and 40 miles north of St Kilda.  The lighthouse is one of the rock stations where three men are continually stationed, fortnightly reliefs being given. The three men last stationed on the lighthouse were named James Ducat, the principal keeper; Thomas Marshall and Donald McArthur, the last-named being an occasional keeper, employed in this instance during the illness of one of the regular staff. The relieving keeper, Moore, was landed on the island yesterday by the Board’s steamer, and the absence of all the men showed that a dreadful occurrence had happened. So far as it is presently known, the men have vanished, and nothing definite is known of their fate. It is, however, surmised that the calamity happened during the great storm of last week. As the regulations proved that during the night one man must remain in constant attendance on the lights, it is regarded as practically certain that the accident occurred in daylight, and it is suggested as one probably cause that the men have been blown over the cliffs and drowned while trying to secure the crane. Another theory is that they may have been trying to give assistance to a fishing boat or other vessel in distress.

The relieving keeper, Moore, was yesterday left at the lighthouse with three other men to keep the light burning pending permanent arrangements. The Flannan Islands are a group of seven small precipitous islands, sometimes called ‘the seven hunters,’ covering an area of about three miles by two. The eastmost is 17 miles of Gallan Head in [Uig,] Lewis, and the islands lie near the track of vessels bound from the westward, and making the north passage through the Pentland Firth. the light, which was first lighted on the 7th December of last year, is seen 24 miles off in clear weather. A system of signalling, in case of need, exists between the lighthouse and the nearest point on the main islands, from whence the light is visible in clear weather. It is explained that the absence of signalling gave rise to no suspicion that anything was wrong, and that it would be taken for granted that the light could not be seen on account of the  recent bad weather.  Of the three men lost, two were married men, Ducat and McArthur. The former’s wife and family reside at Breascleit in Lewis, to which place McArthur, who was an old army man, belonged. It is understood that no such occurance ever before happened in the history of the Board, the most serious previous disaster being the loss of the attending boat, with all hands, on a run between Kirkcudbright and the Little Ross some years ago.

A passing ship had noticed that the light was out on 15 December, and reported it at Oban; evidently the news did not reach the Lighthouse Board until after the relief ship Hesperus called on a routine visit and put a party ashore on 26 December.  The mystery has never been conclusively solved and has caught the popular imagination, being compared to the Marie Celeste and generating many theories, from murder or kidnapping to sea-serpents and a displeased Phantom of the Seven Hunters (there were other accidents) - though the most likely explanation is that the men were simply washed away in severe weather while attending to loose equipment.  The lighthouse continued to be manned until September 1971, when the last three keepers left it to automatic power.

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Holidaying in Uig, 1926

These new-to-us pictures come from the albums of the late Roberta Maclennan, whose brother Duncan was the doctor in Uig during WW2 - though the pictures date from 1926, and were taken in Glen Valtos, before the quarrying started there.  Many thanks to John J Maclennan for providing them, and others.

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Upright in Uig

Rev Alexander Macleod arrived in Uig 1824 and evidently had a powerful influence on his congregation.  In the first years of his ministry a number of stories arose demonstrating the (new) piety and upright behaviour of the people of Uig - perhaps exaggerating somewhat the change that had been brought about.

In any case Uig was one of several places in the Highlands and Islands that became celebrated for the revival around that time.  The following account comes from the History of Revivals of Religion in the British Isles, by Mary Grey Lundie Duncan (Oliphant & Son, Edinburgh 1836), who praises in particular the reported “prayerfulness, uprightness and Christian liberality” amongst the people of Uig.  Most of the long section on Uig was reprinted the same year in the Scottish Christian Herald, a publication of the “Ministers and Members of the Established Church”. At the time Rev Macleod was still very much in charge.

On occasion of a year of famine, the natives were put to great straits, and in danger of perishing for want. A vessel laden with meal was driven upon their shores by stress of weather. Did the famine-stricken natives seize on the ship, and lawlessly apply her cargo to the supply of their necessities? If they had, hunger would have formed for them a plausible excuse. Twenty years before, they would doubtless have done so, and held themselves guiltless. But now it was not so. Every portion was accurately weighed or divided, and as their necessities were so great that they had nothing then to pay, their affectionate minister gave a promissory note for it, knowing well that the excellent lady [Mrs Stewart Mackenzie], whose property the lands are, would not suffer him to be impoverished. The people know this also, but none took advantage of it, all were occupied in economising to the utmost till one after another they had repaid their debt.  Thus they obtained not only the great blessing of necessary food, but preserved the still greater blessing of integrity, and a spirit free from covetousness.

It is the rule in this and in the other isles of the Hebrides, that when a man meets a stray sheep on the moor, he is entitled to carry it home as his own, and obliged to make an equivalent offering in the collection for the poor on the Sabbath day. After the commencement of the revival in the Lewis, many came to confess to their minister the trouble of conscience they experienced by reason of having what they called a black sheep in their flocks - some having had them to make restitution now in the appointed way, and in one season the sum of £16 was deposited in the plate. The number of sheep annually lost has wonderfully diminished since the commencement of the revival, leading to the conclusion that the loss imputed to accident arose from dishonesty.

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Uig Shop’s new mystery van

From the Scotsman, 17 January 2010:

THE owners of one of the remotest shops in the country were celebrating yesterday after a “mystery millionaire” bought a new £16,000 delivery van to ensure the community does not run out of stock.

Read more »

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Unidentified

These studio portraits are all from the early years of the 20th century - except the first, which is a tintype (I think) and seems to be earlier. They are unidentified, but came from the collection of Joan Maciver, Cliff. If you know who they might be, please comment.

[Show as slideshow]

Unidentified 21

Unidentified 22

Unidentified 23

Unidentified 24

Unidentified 25

Unidentified 26

Unidentified 27

Unidentified 28

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Dòmhnall Cam and Alasdair na Saile Bige

Cha robh cam, nach robh crosda.

The following is an account of a familiar tale of the island - perhaps the most famous told of Donald Cam, the chief of the Macaulays in Uig, as given by Capt FWL Thomas in his Traditions of the Macaulays of Lewis (1880).

In 1597 some degree of peace was enjoyed in Lewis under the government of Torquil Dubh Macleod, son of Old Rory. Torquil Dubh had been fostered in Uig under the guard of Donald Cam and twenty-eight stout Macaulays. Torquil Dubh was hunding for rabbits in his nightshirt, on the sandy holm of Siarem, a little island opposite Valtos, when a message came from John Morrison, Brieve of Lewis, inviting Torquil Dubh, Donald Cam and their friends to a feast at Ness, on board a foreign vessel which he had captured. But the Brieve treacherously concealed a party of the best warriors of his clan in the ship, of whom the doughtiest was John Roy Mackay, who lived at North Bragar in Barvas.

The guests were seated round the table and enjoyed themselves for some hours, their arms having been deposited elsewhere. It was getting dark, and everything being ready, the ship’s cable was silently cut and she drifted out into the open sea. Presently the ship began to roll; Donald Cam jumped on deck, and, seeing the state of matters cried out to Torquil Dubh that they were betrayed. He rushed to where his arms had been laid, but they had been removed, and then the Brieve’s party, who had been concealed, stood forth with swords and daggers. The gigantic Mackay seized Donald Cam, and, while others stood by with their swords at his breast, lashed him to the mast. Torquil Dubh was bound by another party of ruffians, and the ship was steered for Ullapool, the residence of the pseudo-brother of Torquil Dubh. The prisoners were landed; Donald Cam and his son-in-law, Alasdair na Saile Bige (Small-heel) Macleod, were fettered by a heavy chain to a large block like an anvil, which weighed eleven Dutch stones. It is told that the prisoners were chained in pairs sitting with their backs to the wall, Torquil and another being at the top, and Donald Cam and Alasdair were last. While sitting in this disconsolate matter a man suddenly entered, having in his had a bunch of twigs of sycamore, in Gaelic called fior-chrann.  He walked along the row, beginning at the top, presenting the bunch in passing as if he meant that each should help himself from it. Being absorbed in anxiety and despair, they took little notice of the man, and perhaps thought he had come to mock their misery. But when the bunch was proffered to Donald Cam, although he was in as forlorn a condition as any of the rest, he was so irascible by disposition, that he clutched at it and snatched away some of the twigs, and Alasdair followed his example, and they noted afterwards that they were the only two who escaped with life.

While Donald Cam and his companion were brooding over their misfortunes, Alasdair suddenly remembered that one of his feet was smaller than the other, and this is was the small one that was in the fetter. With little difficulty he extricated himself, helped to place the block and chain on the back of Donald Cam, and both got away.

They lurked in the woods all the next day, but the boats were everywhere turned upside down, and not an oar was left outside a house. but the fugitives succeeded in reaching Applecross, and there found an old boat, but so leaky they had to stop the seams with clay, and their only oars were the bars from the gate of a cattle pen. They started in the direction of Skye, but by this time Donald Cam was far spent by misery and the intolerable weight of his chain, that, rendered desperate by his misfortunes, he gave up rowing and baling when but half way across, and sat gloomily down in the stern of the boat.

At this failure on the part of Donald Cam, Alasdair did not say one word, but awhile he rowed and awhile he baled, till at last they reached Skye.  When they got to land Alasdair asked Donald Cam why he had given up rowing when they were but half way across. Donald said he was so called by his chains and irritated by his misfortunes that he thought by sitting idle in the leaky boat he would provoke Alasdair to quarrel, that then they would fight and both would perish together. Alasdair suspected such was his intention, and, knowing the danger, avoided offending him, and rowed and baled as best he could. They were kindly received at Dunvegan, and a smith took off the chain which was linked round Donald Cam’s neck and leg.

The iron chain was kept for many years at Dunvegan as a convincing proof of the strength and endurance of Donald Cam; but once, when Macleod was from home, a blacksmith converted it to some domestic use. The late Rev Hugh Munro of Uig saw the chain at Dunvegan when it weighed eleven Dutch stone.

After the adventurers had recruited their strength and procured new arms, they crossed the sea to Harris and came on to Uig, their native place. There was much joy on their safe arrival among their friends and relations, who had had no hope of ever seeing them again.

When the Brieve of Lewis found that Donald Cam and Alasdair na Saile Bige had escaped, he hastened home in much alarm, dreading invasion from the Macaulays, and prepared for defence by endeavouring to procure the attachment and assistance of the ablest of the Ness warriors.

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Vuia Mhòr

Crofters taking fleeces off Vuia, c1990 (photographer unknown - perhaps Iain Macdonald?)

The island of Vuia Mhor lies between Uig and Great Bernera, east of Reef, and covers an area of 84 hectares. The highest point is Mullach na Beinne (67m) which falls away to the sea at Creag na h-Iolaire (Eagle Cliff). Much of the island is rough hilly ground but there is a slope suitable for cultivation on the south side (with lazybeds still evident), and houses were built at an isthmus between two beaches on the east side.

Rubha an h-Athadh, the point of the kiln, still bears the substantial remains of what is held locally to be a kelp kiln, as the occupants of the island would have been obliged by their landlord to gather and process kelp to pay their rents. (A mink was in residence in the kiln when some of us visited in 2006.) Otherwise there are only a few rough enclosures on other parts of the island.

Vuia was occupied during the first half of the 19th century; records give four families living there in 1807, those of Murdo Maclean, Neil Macleod (ex Mangersta), Norman Nicolson and Roderick Stewart, each paying a rent of £4.0.9d annually. By 1841 there were seven families and some 46 people living there, but it was cleared shortly afterwards and has not been occupied since then. Most of those who left the island can be traced - more of which later.

There are two wells, both still evident in 2006 and both very near the settlement. The island is part of Valtos grazings and used by local crofters for their sheep.

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School Trip to Bernera, 1952

Thanks to the comments below from Dolly and Murdina, we now know that this is a joint expedition by Lochcroistean and Mangersta School to see the Bernera Bridge on 25 June 1952, before it was officially opened in 1953.  Of course, it can be seen across Loch Roag from Carishader so the children (at Lochcroistean at least) would have been well aware of its progress. More pictures of the construction period and opening of the bridge can be seen on Hebridean Connections.  See the comments for more detail - and if you were there, and have more to add, please do.

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Hogmanay in the Capital, 1943

Stornoway Gazette, 21 Jan 1944

The pressmen get their snaps - Lewisfolk provide a little colour

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 played and dances were arranged in the wide open spaces at both ends of the escalators.

Some allied servicement joined in the dances although the steps were strange to most of them, and the American photographers who had been waiting for a real snap got the best of the evening there.

Earlier the cameramen had met another Lewis crowd at Chancery Lane, and they appeared to like their company too, focussing their cameras on them periodically, perhaps attracted by the Gaelic banter and song.

Despite travel restrictions a number of Lewis folk obtained short leave in December and early January and the following were among those who met in the heart of the capital during the festive season:

Norman Maclean, Army, 8 Timsgarry; Chief Officer W Williams and Bell, the Manse, Carloway; Catherine Macleod, WAAF, Aird Dell; Nurse Jessie Macdonald, Burnside, Doune; Malcolm Mackay, Navy, 13 Kneep; Nurse Chrissie Macphail, 7 Doune; Donald Smith, Navy, 20 Valtos; Chrissie Macdonald, NFS, 35 Gress; Nurse Peggie Morrison, 24 South Bragar; Malcolm Macaulay, MB ChB, Enaclete; Mary Mackay, WW, Cromore; LS Malcolm Macdonald, Navy, Earshader; Annie Murray and Chrissie Eliot, LT, North Tolsta; Norman Macaulay, MN, 34 Upper Bayble; Nurse K Morrison, Reef; Fergus Ferguson, Army, Croir; Malcolm Macleod, Navy, Park Shawbost; Joan Mackenzie, NFS, Back; John Campbell, MN, North Bragar; John Chisholm, Canadians, whose ancestors left Uist 150 years ago; Pt Neil Maclean, Canadians, 37 Kenneth St; Louis Macleod, Navy, Ranish; PO Mary Macneil, WRNS, 51 Upper Carloway; George Macleod, Navy, Coll; Donald Maclennan, Navy, Tong; CPO Kenneth Macdonald, Breaclete; LAC Alex Neil Macleod, RAF, 28 Keith St; John Smith, Canadians, 20 Valtos.

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December

Miavaig; taken 29 December 2009, 9am. The bay at Miavaig is frozen, as are all the smaller sealochs, including Little Loch Roag, which doesn’t happen often.

There is a story of crossing Little Loch Roag on foot, however. James Macnaughton, born 1804 and the son of a shepherd at Cleit a Thog (near Scaliscro), was courting Margaret Macdonald, the daughter of Tarmod Laghach at Gisla across the loch. Evidently, during a severe frost, James was able to walk across, pushing a stick in front of him to check the thickness of the ice, which was quite a shortcut compared to the journey round the head of the loch. The Gisla family were against the match, and James had a reputation for laziness, but the couple were eventually married and had ten of a family, living at Kirkibost (James was a shepherd) and later Crulivig.

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Snow in Uig

We’ve had a lot of snow in Uig lately, but nothing as bad as this report from the Stornoway Gazette, 2 February 1945:

Snowstorm in Lewis
Traffic still disorganised

Throughout last week traffic by road in Lewis was still disorganised by the snow. The fall has been one of the heaviest within living memory, and the snow has remained for an unusually long time. At the beginning of the week there were one or two half-hearted suggestions of a thaw, but by the end of the week it was freezing harder than ever, and at the time of writing (on Monday) road conditions are as bad as ever.

Conditions varied from district to district, but all have suffered inconvenience to a greater or less degree. Uig and Park were without grocery vans for a fortnight, and Uig was without a bus service for the same period. Travellers arriving by mail steamer had difficulty in getting home to the more remote districts. Some have walked up to twenty miles through the snow. Others have been unable to get home at all. On two occasions the navy sent a boat from Stornoway to Loch Roag with servicemen coming or going on leave. The vessels also carried supplies for service units. The civil population of Uig, without vans or buses for a fortnight, had to live by lending and borrowing, a process to which there is a very obvious limit.

On Friday a vessel chartered by the Ministry of Food sailed from Stornoway for Tarbert and Leverburgh in response to an SOS from Harris County Councillors. A boat from Glasgow also reached Tarbert on Friday, but until then Harris had been three weeks without supplies from Glasgow by sea, and a fortnight without supplies from Stornoway by road.

The vessel chartered by the Ministry of Food also took mails from Stornoway to Tarbert. Other mail services were maintained with remarkable regularity by the exertions of the van drivers, who in some districts were the only people on the road. Even to Uig a mail service was maintained (with difficulty) until Friday, when it proved to be impossible to get within three miles of a van which had stuck and been abandoned - fortunately without mails. On Monday a mail was sent to Uig by sea from Callanish. On one trip a post office driver had to dig his van out five times. Some of the bus drivers, too, maintained a remarkably good service, especially those on the West Side.

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Christmas at Fort Pitt, 1884

Further to the previous item about WJ Maclean of Gisla, who was a Chief Trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company:  an account of the one Christmas he and his family spent at Fort Pitt before it was burned to the ground in April 1885.  This is from an article by W Bleasdell Cameron in The Beaver, December 1945.

Christmas was coming to old Fort Pitt on the North Saskatchewan, still in that year of 1884 an outpost of the white man’s civilisation, and preparations were afoot to celebrate in becoming manner, according to custom, that time-honoured festival of peace on earth, good will toward men.

Under the supervision of beloved and motherly Mrs McLean, the chief trader’s wife, and her three comely daughters, Otto Dufresne, the white-haired diminutive French-Canadian “company” cook (Muskawatchakoos, or “the Little Oak”, to the Cree because of his remarkable strength) had outdone himself.  There was delicious wild rice soup, roast young beaver, tender and succulent as lamb, which it much resembled, roast prairie chickens and partridges, berry pemmican, pies, cakes and of course the one item lacking which no Christmas dinner could be complete - a royal plum pudding with brandy sauce.

Then there were the decorations: the walls of the dining-room draped in white and navy blue, with sprays and festoons of spruce intertwining cross arms of muskets and revolvers; four wreaths of spruce enclosing the symbols HBC (Hudson’s Bay Company), NWMP (North West Mounted Police), ID (Indian Department) and Our Guests, worked in scarlet monograms; and on a background of the Union Jack and the Hudson’s Bay Company flag, in white lettering, the words Welcome, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  In the room of the unobtainable holly, there were cranberries en branche from the neighbouring muskeg.  Not even the mistletoe had been forgotten, bunched clippings of Saskatoon twigs replacing that osculatory indispensable.  A large star of sapin over the centre of the room completed a list of decorations at once pleasing, tasteful and characteristic of the season and the country.

The glorious day opened with the established all-round matutinal greetings among the members of the isolated little community and calls by the personnel of the North West Mounted Police detachment, who were quartered in Company buildings, on Chief Trader WJ McLean and his numerous family. Then there were gifts to the little ones of the brood from individual friends among the chemoginusuk*.  Everybody and his wife received a welcoming handshake and a serving of the refreshments provided by the Company’s head in “The Big House”…

[After checking the trapline] we arrived back at the fort just in time to shed our snowshoes and make ourselves presentable before joining the big Company family and its guests at the Christmas dinner.  One of the guests at the table, I should mention, was Captain Francis Dickens, son of the novelist, in command of the Fort Pitt detachment, NWMP, in which he held the rank of inspector.

Dinner over we adjourned to the office, where Manila cheroots - an article of commerce at that date imported and stocked by the Hudson’s Bay Company - were passed round by our host.

Then, “according to plan,” we divided into two competing groups for the rabbit hunt, which was an important feature on the day’s programme.  One party was headed by the chief trader, the other - if memory serves me - by Angus Mackay.  All the grown-ups in the large McLean family, including the three eldest girls, “shouldered arms” like veteran troopers and marched forth to the “Battle of the Bunnies.” I cannot recall which side got the larger number, but I know we had a lot of fun, snowballing and racing, which not overlooking the main object of potting the prey.

In those short December days the sun “went out”, as the Indians say, early, and it was nearly nightfall when we called off the contest and returned to the fort and another sumptuous meal.  After we had satisfied our appetites and had enjoyed more cheroots int he office, we returned to the reception room in the Big House and played Post Office, Pass the Button and other games or cards, sang songs and thrummed guitars and the piano, to round out a day crammed full of merrymaking and excitement.

Canada’s National History Society provides a wealth of similar material on their website, much of it drawn from The Beaver, which was established in 1920 as a Hudson’s Bay Company staff newsletter and continues now as the Society’s history magazine.  We are trawling the archives for Hebridean stuff.

*I have no idea what chemoginusuk means and this appears to be the first mention of it on the internet.  Anybody know?

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At Strome

A very unseasonable picture:  a party from Reef, out at Strome for peats in fine weather.  Angus Mackay (an Gagan), James Morrison (Seumas Mhurchaidh Seumais), Christina Mackay, Peggy Macritchie (Peggy an Irish) and Murdo Macdonald (Morgan).

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