CE Uig hosted a photographer earlier this month, Gawaine Meechan, who was taking photos of as many as would stand still.  Warm thanks to Gawaine for his hard work, and to all who sat for him; there are more than these, and he will be back in the early summer. The photos will add to our archive but we hope will also make up an exhibition and/or a publication.

The dislodgement of Neil Macleod [natural son of the last chief of the Lewis Macleods] from his island fortress of Berisay may be said to signalise the conquest of Lewis by the Mackenzies. This was effected by a force led by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul in the summer or autumn of 1611; for it is stated that it was within a few months of the death of Kenneth, Lord Kintail, which took place in February of that year. The expedition to Lewis was under the command of Lord Kintail’s brother Roderick, better known as the Tutor of Kintail, and we are told that, after the execution of Neil Macleod in 1613, he “returned to the Lewis, banished those whose Deportment he most doubted, and settled the rest as Peaceable Tenants to his Nephew.” It is probably that it was about this time that Alexander Mackenzie was appointed chamberlain, and that he was the principal agent in these transactions.

Among the last to accept losses from the new chamberlain were the Macaulays of Uig. Their chief at the time was the redoubtable Domhnall Cam mac Dhughaill. It is greatly to his credit that he stood by the Macleods to the last. Even now, when all seemed lost, he was by no means in a yielding frame of mind, and apparently maintained his independence in Uig for a number of years. Eventually, Alexander Mackenzie and other officers were sent by the Tutor of Kintail to negotiate with him, but he rejected all their offers out of hand.

Their threats made no impression on Domhnall Cam, but it was otherwise with his son Angus. When the plenipotentiaries took their departur, Angus Macaulay had second thoughts, and set out after them. He overtook them as they were making their way from Valtos to the Uig Ferry at a place call Braigh Thais. There the conference was resumed, and the outcome was that Angus Macaulay agreed to accept lands from Lot Kintail.

To confirm the pact, it was arranged that he should marry Alexander Mackenzie’s daughter Ann.  This marriage was duly solemnised and Anna nighean Alasdair, as she was called, took up residence with her husband at Brenish, which was the tack he received in virtue of the treaty with his father-in-law. In Uig she is represented as having developed into something of a termagent; but it must be remembered that, whatever her disposition, she can hardly have been a welcome intruder among the Macaulay clan.

Anna was of course the one who sent her husband off to the battle of Auldearn with her scolding, and he stopped on his stone to consider his fate.  Rev Matheson goes on to indicate that the Mackenzie genealogies uphold the tradition of the marriage between Anna and Angus, giving Alexander a son-in-law by the name of Angus Mac Conil Vic Cowil, ie Aonghus mac Dhomhnaill mhic Dhughaill, and that therefore “the rest of the story may be relied upon in the main.”  Alexander himself was supposed to be a very capable man, but fell out of favour with the Earl of Seaforth and Matheson wonders if it was his alliance with the Macaulays that was the cause of it. Alexander is meant to have lived at Eilean Chaluim Chille in South Lochs, on the garden island.

Rev Donald Macaulay also tells this story, with a little more colour, here.

Abhainn Dearg, the new whisky from Uig, will not be whisky until 2011 but thanks to the intrepid Leodhaisiach Mike Donald and his colleagues, a small cask of the new spirit is lying cosseted in a cellar in Glasgow. MacSorley’s Music Bar on Jamaica Street will be the venue for a tasting of the Peacemaker batch on Tuesday 16 March, from 7.30. From the invitations:

On February 21st 2010 at the Abhainn Dearg Distillery in Carnish on the far west coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides released its first casks of legal spirit.

The MacSorley’s management embarked on a four day, 600+ mile journey from Glasgow to collect one of these casks and become the first people to take a legally distilled dram off the island inover 160 years.

The new make spirit came fresh from the still and has sat in a 30 litre Oloroso cask for the last few weeks. We are proud to be the only public retailer of the spirit (it’s NOT whisky!) in the world.

Tonight we invite you to join us for the tapping of the cask and the first tasting of what should prove to be an interesting drink.

We have named our batch “Peacemaker” after our founder, Philip MacSorley’s original blend.

There will be tradition live music from rising Lewis artist Iain Morrison. Abhainn Dearg’s owner & distiller will be present as well as a coopering demonstration from local firm Fishers. Food from Biadh chef Sam Carswell will also be served.

Slainte mhath!

To be added to the guest list, send a request to miked-at-subclub.co.uk (replacing the -at- with @). You can read about Mike’s journey to a wintry Uig starting here and see a pre-tasting video by whisky reviewer Ralfy here.  Abhainn Dearg is also offering a three day “whisky experience”.

Many thanks to Donald J Macleod of Enaclete and Bridge of Don for his research into the fishing boats of Uig. He adds that these boats used lines and not trawls to catch white fish. It was the end of March and beginning of April that was known as the ‘Hungry month’ in Gaelic as fish did not take the bait. See the chart. I’m not sure where this leaves our Rose (above), apparently SY 47 - more research required.

The following Uig fishing boats were registered between 1900 and 1912:

Maggie SY 417, owned by W. Matheson and others, Kneep.
Clan MacAulay SY 496, owned by Donald MacAulay, Islivig.
Florence SY 750, owned by J. MacRae, Timsgarry.
Julia SY 384, owned by J. MacLennan and others, Valtos.
Pride of Harris SY 620, owned by A. MacAulay, Valtos.
Mabel Scott SY 594, owned by A. MacAulay, Valtos.
Brothers SY 754, owned by M. Buchanan, Valtos.
Maggie Jane SY 664, owned by Hector Matheson, Valtos.
Lord Lothian SY 251, owned by D. MacKay, Crowlista.
Admiral SY 492, owned by Malcolm MacLeod and others, Crowlista.
D. MacLeod SY 598, owned by D. MacDonald, Crowlista.
Stephanus SY 161, owned by J. MacDonald, Crowlista. He was drowned in the Iolaire disaster on 1 January 1919.

There were also many small family boats and though fishing they were not registered, for example Enaclete and Ungishader had eight boats between, belonging to Donald MacLeod 1 Enaclete, John MacDonald, Croft 1a Enaclete, Donald MacLeod 3 Enaclete, John MacRitchie 4 Enaclete, John MacDonald 6 Enaclete, John MacLeod 1 Ungeshader, Malcolm Morrison 1b Ungeshader, and Peter MacLean (Coll) 3 Ungeshader. These boats were not registered but fished with lines and herring nets.  During WW2 I remember herring being fished in Little Loch Roag, and Loch Drovernish had a small sweet herring that was very popular.

Some of the boats were built locally and others were bought. Before the Clearances there were a number of boatbuilders in Uig including John MacLeod, Carishader, MacDonald, Enaclete and the renowned MacLeans. Donald MacLeod, 1 Enaclete, bought his Zulu designed boat from an East Coat fisherman at the Flannan Isles and sailed the boat to Enaclete.

There were many netmakers in the parish though a number of nets were handmade in the homes from hemp yarn. These were eventually replaced by less bulky cotton machine-woven nets, which were deeper and longer. Rev Hugh Munro, states in the first Statistical Account about 1795 that there were 275 netmakers in the Uig Parish at that time. To have this number of netmakers gives us an idea how heavily populated Uig was before the ethic cleansing of the population by the Clearances.  The second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries (before the heavy Clearances) were prosperous times in Lewis when cattle, herring, dried salted fish, dogfish oil, blanketing and hides were exported to the mainland and to the European continent. Ships from Lewis used to sail directly to the continent.

Heavy losses in WW1, the Iolaire disaster and emigration resulted in the virtual demise of the Uig fishing fleet, as by 1924 there were only two fishing boats registered in Uig:

Mairidh Bheag SY 306, owned by Norman Morrison, Valtos.
Johanna Macleod SY 1159, owned by Malcolm Smith, Valtos.

In 1926 there were two other boats registered: Johanna MacLeod SY 1159 (Ex-Valtos) now owned by Malcolm MacLeod, Crowlista and the Bosta SY 1171 owned by Donald MacLeod who may also be from Crowlista.  Murdo MacSween, Valtos, also owned a boat that fished in the 1920s or 1930s.

In 1940 the only registered fishing boats in Uig were in Valtos:

Flora SY 34, owned by D. MacIver.
Annie SY 178, owned by J.MacDonald.
Annie Lowrie SY 207, owned by A. Morrison, previously owned by K. MacDonald. (possibly should be Annie Lawrie)
Rose SY 281, owned by G. MacLeod.
Mairidh Bheag SY 306, owned by Norman Morrison.
Olive SY 342, owned by N. Morrison.
Rosebud SY 552, owned by D. MacLennan and others. This was the largest of these boats at 8.17 tons.

In 1951 there was only one Uig boat fishing out of Stornoway, the Kilda SY 346 owned by Kenneth J. MacKay, Valtos, and others. Another member of the crew was Donald MacDonald, Reef. They fished for white fish. Kenneth J. MacKay, a noted footballer, later emigrated to Australia with his family.

©Donald J. MacLeod, ex 1 Enaclete, Uig.  January, 2009.

Dr David Caldwell, Keeper of Scotland and Europe at the National Museum of Scotland, and Dr Mark Hall, curator at Perth Museum, were on the island to make arrangements for the touring Chessmen’s visit in 2011.

Their proposal that the findspot was a souterrain on the site of a supposed nunnery at Mealista, Taigh na Cailleachan Dubh, has previously met with strong scepticism in Uig, where local tradition maintains that the 92 Chessmen, along with 14 plain tablemen and a buckle, were found at the Bealach Ban in the Ardroil dunes in 1831 by Malcolm “Sprot” Macleod of Pennydonald.

Dr Caldwell suggests that other sources point to Mealista, notably Captain Ryrie of Stornoway, who bought the pieces in April 1831 and the Ordnance Survey records from 1853, and that the Ardroil connection may have originated, erroneously, with Donald Morrison, writing in 1833.

Arguments from the assembled crowd challenged the new proposal, citing in particular the account of the local minister, Rev Alexander Macleod, who lived a quarter of a mile from the findspot and wrote of it in the New Statistical Report of 1833. Also mentioned was the fact that Mealista was inhabited in 1831, and a significant find there would certainly have passed into local memory.

The presentation also touched on the variety in styles, workmanship and possibly originating dates between the Chessmen, which meant that they may have been gathered over a period of time, rather than made as a discreet set. Of particular interest was the work done by forensic anthropologist Dr Caroline Wilkinson on the facial variations between the “families” of chessmen, which may indicate different craftsmen.

Dr Hall said that some of the plainer pieces - the pawns - may also have been used along with the flat tablemen also found in the hoard for Hnefatafl, and that the set represented a “compendium” used by a wealthy individual, for whom luxury goods were a sign of power and prosperity.

A strong message from the presentation was that Lewis certainly had the wealth and power to support a high-status material culture. It is reasonable to suppose that the Chessmen, or the games compendium, were kept and used here in the Kingdom of the Isles, contrary to other suggestions that they may have been accidentally lost while en route to Dublin or some other Viking centre.

Dr Caldwell said that there was still a large amount of research to be done on the Chessmen before all their secrets were known. It is only in the recent preparations for the touring exhibition that high-resolution photographs have revealed working marks on the carved pieces.

It is hoped that the Chessmen will return to Uig for a brief visit during the summer of 2011, for the first time since 2000. The touring exhibition, which brings together 30 pieces from the British Museum and the National Museum, begins in Edinburgh in May and will continue to Aberdeen and Shetland before opening at Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway on 15 April 2011.

There is a set of spectacular photos of the marine world under St Kilda, over on the new Ionad Hiort website. Many thanks to the photographer Paul Kay.  Click on the fish to see more.

St Kilda has been inscribed as a World Heritage Site under both natural and cultural criteria; in 2004 the WHS designation, at the time only for its natural attributes, recognised also the “complex ecological dynamic in the three marine zones present in the site” which was extended to included the surrounding marine area.

Life on the island of Vuia Mhòr was hard, with little fertile land and no safe anchorage. The peats were cut and harvested in Drovinish and taken home by rowing boat or sail. Boats had to be beached after each fishing trip.

Amongst the inhabitants were the family of Neil Macleod, who had found refuge in Vuia Mhòr after being cleared from the old village of Mangersta. Neil was married to Catherine Mackenzie of Kirkibost, Bernera and they had twelve children, ten of whom emigrated to Cape Breton between 1821-1826. Kenneth, one of the sons, emigrated in 1826 with his wife Ann Macleod from Balallan, and their child died on the long sea voyage across the Atlantic. They managed to keep the child’s death a secret so that the child would not be buried at sea.

A grandson of Neil Macleod, ‘An Og (John, son of John), lived on Vuia and was courting Ann Maclennan from Reef. It is said he swam across to Reef regularly with his dry clothing strapped to his head.

The islanders fished to sustain the families and paid their rent by harvesting the sea-kelp with the substantial profit from the sales going to the landowner. When the landlord’s greedy eye focused on sheep rearing the community was sacrificed and scattered to the four winds.

The land officer evicted the inhabitants from the seven homes and forty-six souls young and old came ashore in the village of Geshader.  The strong swimmer John Macleod married his Ann in 1847 and lived in Geshader, having been cleared from the island along with his mother and sister. They lived there as cottars and the ruins of the house can be seen to this day at No 2. The Martin and the Smith family became cottars on No 10 Geshader and later emigrated. The Mathesons went to Ungeshader, then some emigrated and others went to Brue. The MacArthurs settled south of Enaclete at a place still known as Buaile Mhic Artair.

Tales of the eviction were repeated in oral tradition and are expressed in the poetry:

‘S iomadh athair agus màthair
Bha gu làr a ’sileadh dheòir
Mar chaidh a fuadach as an àite
Far an deach an àrach òg.
Chuala sinn e bho ar cairdean
Mu’s do dh’fhag iad tìr nam beò
Gu’n ghabh mallachdan an àite
Air na dh’fhàsaich Bhuidha Mhòr

À Amhran Lord Lever
le Domhnall Donn, Donald Maciver Cnip

The land officer responsible for the evictions, Kenneth Stewart, tacksman of Hacklete, went to Canada after his wife diedand fell on hard times. According to tradition, he was a tramp and went to the door of a house and knocked. The girl who opened the door gave him a piece of bread and after he had eaten she enquired if he had enjoyed this morsel. He replied that he truly had and was very grateful. She then proceeded to tell him that he had been responsible for the eviction of herself and her family from Vuia Mhòr!

Cha robh dùil agad fhads a bha thu gam fhuadach à Bhuidha
Gum biodh tu lorg aoigheach orm ann an Canada.

Though she had only been a very young girl at the time of the eviction, she recognised the man at her door. She then urged him to leave before her husband came home. She believed he would murder, either he who carried out the evictions, or her for showing compassion to the man who had evicted the families so brutally years before.

Kenneth Stewart was born in 1781 in Skye and came to Uig - in fact to Bernera - with his relative, Rev Hugh Munro. He married Mary Smith, daughter of Farquhar the tacksman at Earshader, and lived at the farmhouse in Hacklete where they had nine of a family. Six of his children emigrated; five to Canada and one to Australia. He went to Canada after his wife’s death in 1851 (she is buried at Baile na Cille) and himself died before 1861 in Victoria County, Nova Scotia.

According to Capt FWL Thomas’s Traditions of the Macaulays “Maighstir Amhlaigh” was “much esteemed for his piety, benevolence and conduct” and very rigorous in his duties. Thomas relates several stories that include Norman Maciver, Tarmod Cleireach, who was his kirk-officer and a bard, and as another Uigeach, often accompanied Aulay on his journeys home, which would have been on foot over the hills. The following is from Thomas’s book.

When they were returning home to Harris [after a visit to Uig] they both got very tired with their long day’s travel, and towards evening sat down to rest by a spring on the hills of Luskentyre. They were both very hungry, and as Norman had some graddan [grain husked by briefly holding it in a flame, rather than in a kiln] with him in his bag, which his mother had sent to his wife, he mixed some with a little water and made two large lumps. They began to eat with much eagerness, and when Mr Aulay had made considerable progress with his cnap up jumped Norman and addressed some advancing travellers with “Your most humble servant,” and “How do you do?” Up sprang Mr Aulay in a hurry, throwing away the remainder of his cnap, but there was nobody there. Mr Aulay set off home as fast as he could, and the next day remonstrated with Norman about his tricks, but he excused himself by saying that he was afraid the minister was wasting time, and he wanted him to proceed on his journey.

There was a meeting of Presbytery at the house of Macleod of Bernera[y], Harris, which was attended by the Rev Aulay Macaulay and his faithful kirk-officer, Tarmod Cleireach. The ministers’ servants had a room to themselves and got beef and broth for their dinner. There was then the custom of Lettrimaid, that is, the beef and broth were both placed on the table together in the same large dish or bowl. It happened that Norman was one day late in coming to dinner and his greedy messmates had eaten all the meat, but they had not begun on the broth for it was scalding hot. Norman came in, and finding that his share of the beef had been eaten, he lifted the large bowl of broth and poured it over them. The screams of the scalded lads brought everybody to the spot, but Norman went off and hid himself under some hay in a barn. The next day Norman left his retreat, and defended himself before the assembled clergymen with so much spirit that he was excused. Mr Aulay was afraid he should still go on with his tricks, for, being born a bard, he was allowed to do almost anything he liked.

Tarmod Cleireach was retained as kirk-officer till Mr Aulay died [in 1758], and the minister on his deathbed desired that his much-beloved friend and servant should, when he died, be buried beside him; and the two rest together immediately within what was the door of the church, and on the right hand side as you enter.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been delving into the book of place names collected by the very first Ordnance Survey of the 1850s to find out for myself what’s actually there and to work out how much import can be given to the entry that states that the Chessmen were found in Mealista, in the ruins of Taigh nan Cailleachan Dubha. The Place Names book is easily accessible, on microfiche in the Stornoway Library.

I have to say that it’s an example of meticulous paperwork, a colossal amount of painstaking effort must have gone into its compilation but to the 21st century eye, it looks fussy and overdone. It’s handwritten and ruled out in column after column: place name; its correct spelling; any other known variation of the spelling; the location; the English “significance” i.e. translation of the name; the names of the person or persons who were the authorities for the information and of the Ordnance Survey Clerks who wrote it all down and, finally, a column for comments.

We used to be advised as students not to use it as a reliable source as the information was only as good as the knowledge of the informant and also, because its accuracy could have been compromised in translation. There’s a long time since I last looked at it and this time round, I found its main impact, apart from its painstaking “clerkery,” was the sheer volume of place names in the parish of Uig. Going through the pages nearer home, I felt as if I was meeting old friends as place names jumped out at me from the screen, names I used to hear in daily conversation, which are now rarely, if ever, aired.

I was also intrigued by the names of the local informants of the 1850s. I would really like to go back to it and list them all down to see how many can be identified with the help of the census returns. I found my great, great grandfather, Murdo Macleod, Gisla, (Murchadh Ghioslaigh) and his neighbour and brother-in-law, John Macdonald, (Iain Laghach) reeling off names. That pinpoints the collecting of place names to before 1853 and the Gisla clearance, after which all the Laghach family but two ended up in Quebec.

From memory, I was sure that the Chessmen were noted in the pages relating to the Ardroil area although the name Ardroil wasn’t in use in its present form as early as the 1850s. The farm was known initially by variations of Eadar Dha Fhadhail, such as Ederol. The entry about Chessmen is there, under the place name “Bealach Ban.”  It reads, “A glen on the south side of Camus Uig, it is composed of sand. A few years back a number of carved Ivory images of horses, sheep and other animals were found in this glen. Signifies white glen or pass.”

The authorities for the information are named as John Mackay, Donald Murray and, from the Ordnance Survey, John Morrison. There was nobody indigenous left in Ardroil to impart the place names, they had all been forcibly removed over ten years before the survey and are to be found, household by household, in census returns in Swainbost in Ness, including the widow and family of Malcolm Macleod, the finder of the Chessmen. I haven’t been able to identify Donald Murray, not a surname ever found much in Uig, although there was a Murray family in Crowlista in 1851, Kenneth, not Donald, Murray from Borve, married to Catherine Macdonald, nighean Mhurchaidh Bhain. The most likely explanation is that Donald Murray may have been a Gaelic teacher, possibly in Crowlista, which had a school long before the 1850s. I can make more of the John Mackay: he could have been Iain Macaoidh, ancestor of the Crowlista Mackays, who would have been in his late seventies at that time. But again, we can’t be sure as the name John Mackay comes up in the Survey, in other villages, as the Ordnance Survey clerk.

Now to Mealista, which I had never looked at before and which I found, via the parish of Lochs, which is interposed with upper Uig in the Microfiche reels, and after skimming through Islivig and Breanish, both with interesting information, given by the easily recognized names of long term residents, John Macaulay, Islivig, Donald Macleod, Breanish and Malcolm Mackay, schoolmaster in Breanish. The two entries I found among the Mealista names with additional information other than the actual place name were very relevant to what I was looking for, Teampull Mhealastadh and Tigh nan Cailleachan Dubha, information for both given by Christopher Macrae and Alan Ross, with OS clerk, John Mackay this time.

The Teampull Mhealastadh entry reads: “On the seashore in Mealastadh village. This is an old graveyard in the village of Mealasta, at present there are only a few interred in it, as the inhabitants have left this village. There has never been a church or any kind of meeting house in or about this place as far as can be ascertained.” This is nothing short of shoddy information with two place names mixed up. Cladh Mhealastadh is the old graveyard on the sea shore, the teampull, chapel, is quite separate and at a distance from it, and, as for ascertaining whether there ever was a church about the place, there is no room for doubt on that score with the Mealista chapel, down to its very length and breadth, recorded in the Report of Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland corroborating the oral tradition of the parish.

Translation has weakened the strength of the original Gaelic, “dh’fhalbh na daoine as a’ bhaile,” to the bland English, “the inhabitants have left this village.” Leave it they had, over ten years before, under duress, so that when the Ordnance Survey came round, there were only strangers there. Christopher Macrae came from Kintail, and he had lived in Harris as recently as 1846, we know from census information that he had come to Mealista in 1848 , to the farm which was then a part of the large sheep farm of Hushinish. As for Alan Ross, his is a very well-known name in Lewis history. He was from Lochs, a Gaelic teacher, catechist and later Inspector of Poor for the parish of Lochs, with his home in Keose. He’s not listed as working with the Survey, nor was he the teacher in Breanish, so we can only speculate on what he was doing in Mealista at the time. We’ll never know but we can be sure that neither informant had much local knowledge, other than hearsay. Mealista “exiles” living down the road in Breanish would surely have known more but none of them were informants and then again, we have to remember that the OS were collecting place names, not recording history, although it would have been more useful to us now if some of the effort and space taken up by their elaborate columns had been used to do so.

The entry for Tigh nan Cailleachan Dubha from the same source reads: “A nunnery which was occupied by the order of the Black Nuns, and concerning which no information can be obtained, beyond a number of chessmen having been found in its ruins about 70 years ago which were in good preservation. They were sold to a society of antiquaries in Edinburgh and brought a good price. Nothing remains of it but the site.” Don’t both Mealista entries, with their insistence on no further information, have a casual “don’t bother us” air about them? The Bealach Ban entry, although inaccurate in the detail, clearly ties the find spot of the Chessmen to the obscure hollow in Ardroil machair and also, what dyed in the wool Uigeach, either in 1850 or nowadays, would leave sheep out of things?

The evidence for Mealista, in this Mealista v. Ardroil case, is the Place Name book entries and Captain Ryrie’s remark, both from strangers to Uig, who can have had only brief contact here. On the other hand, there’s contemporary evidence for the Bealach Ban: the minister in the vicinity at the actual time of the find, writing his report for the Statistical Account within four years; Donald Morrison, An Cubair Ban, from the Loch Resort area and living in Stornoway, who died in the 1840s and who produced the first written account of the oral tradition of Uig; the known facts concerning Malcolm Macleod, the finder; plus the rich oral Gaelic tradition handed down to us over generations. Doesn’t the case for Mealista close itself with that essentially Scottish verdict: Not Proven.

As for the Place Name book, my verdict on that is the same finishing as it was at the start: it’s not a reliable source for local history, but is a valuable treasury of Gaelic place names. What looking through it has done, is to leave me with a re-awakened sense of the devastating impact clearance had on Uig. These two fertile villages, with their evidence of early civilisation, and many more, were emptied of their people and left with no one but strangers to speak for them.

©Anna Mackinnon