Feb

28

MacRath Mòr in Caversta

church

Caversta’s claim to fame centres round the Rev John Macrae, minister of Lochs from 1857-1866.
MacRath Mòr, ‘Big Macrae’, who was a physical and spiritual giant was a household name in Scotland in the latter half of the nineteenth century , having ministered at Cross (1833), Knockbain (1839), Greenock (1849), Lochs (1857) and Carloway (1866) before retiring to Stornoway in 1871 where he preached regularly after his retirement.
Lochs (Crossbost) at that time was a congregation of around 5000 people. There were no Free Church buildings at Kinloch or Pairc in these days and with roads being few and far between in what was a large and widely dispersed area. It was with this in mind that the people of Snizort in Skye presented Macrath Mór with a yacht, The Wild Duck which was sailed to Lewis by his good friend Rev Roderick Macleod of Snizort.
This is where Caversta comes to the fore. Because of its central location ‘Gob Chabharstaigh’ became a meeting place and whenever Rev Macrae was to preach there, people came by boat from Kinloch, North Lochs, Cromore and Marvig while those from Gravir, Lemreway and Orinsay came on foot.

Portable pulpit

It is very likely that the ‘tent’ or portable pulpit, at present in the museum at Gravir was used there and there is part of a wall at number 3 in an area known as ‘Tobair na Tent‘.
Macrath Mór’s wife was Penelope Mackenzie, daughter of Captain Thomas Mackenzie, tacksman at Bayble. She is buried in Eilean Chalum Chille where the inscription on her gravestone is still legible but Macrae himself was buried at Greenock.

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Feb

21

Lemreway and the Puffin Hunt, 1958

crofting

by Donald Mackay, Kershader, in 1958-59
Lemreway was one of the villages affected by the Park clearances. It was resettled in 1861 when those who were removed from Brollum to Stiemreway were in that year removed to Lemreway on the outskirts of the Park sheep farm. None of those who had originally been evicted from Lemreway in 1841 returned to it in 1861 except one man, a Macaulay from Crossbost. There are no Macaulays in Lemreway today but certain Nicolsons are descendants of the Macaulay mentioned. The population of the village is 150 persons normally at home and of those there are only four males between the ages of 18 and 30 years.

Puffins on the Shiants

At one time the inhabitants of Lemreway and other neighbouring villages made visits to the Shiant Isles for puffins. The grounds of the Shiants is pockmarked with holes, the nesting place of the puffins, and the villagers used to bring home boatloads of dead birds which were valued for their feathers. They also enjoyed big pots of boiled puffins as a welcome change from their usual fish diet.
Puffins nesting on the Shiants

A day was chosen when there was a strong breeze blowing against the steep braes where the puffins nest and breed. The young men lay down on their backs on these slopes, holding up by the butts fishing rod lines of 9 or 10 foot in length. Holding them with both hands they whacked the puffins as they flew past them, quite low, in their hundreds. Whether the puffin was killed outright or merely stunned, it rolled down the steep slope to the shore or to the sea, and the rest of the crew were kept busy gathering bodies into the boat. The spreading of a herring net over the nesting ground was another method used. This custom has not been engaged in now for many a year.
There are a total of 46 houses (thatched 10, two rooms 2, three rooms 4, four rooms 23, five or more rooms 7.) One house has been built by government grant since 1918.  The school is attended by Lemreway and Orinsay children. There is a headmaster and one female assistant. The number on the roll is 35. In 1914 the number was 84. The West Coast Mission established a mission station in Lemreway shortly after 1900, and in 1938 the station was taken over by the Free Church, to which all the villagers belong.

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Feb

21

Garyvard Village Shops in the Early 1900's

shops / trade

In these days when village shops are all but gone it is hard to imagine that even a small village could have half a dozen shops in the early 1900’s

Buth Dhomhnull a Gharraidh (Donald Macleod) 1 Garyvard.

After the first world war Domhnull a Gharaidh set up a shoemaking business in an extension to Seoc a Gharraidh’s old black house on croft 1 next to where Roddy and Barabells house is sited today.  Donald had served his time as a shoemaker in Stornoway. This soon became a gathering place (taigh ceilidh) for the local youth as well as those not so young.  Card games were a common part of the evenings entertainment with ‘Catch the Ten’ being a favourite with matches as stakes.  Donald soon expanded and started to trade in other commodities and eventually built a shop to sell general stores.
In 1934 he became the Postman for the area serving the villages of Habost, Kershader, Garyvard and Caversta, a service which he undertook for 28 years until he retired in the early 60’s.
By the thirties demand for handmade  footwear had fallen off, but he still did shoe repairs up until the fifties. The shop was at its busiest in the forties when people came for their weekly rations and although the shop was only a 12 X 8 shed it included a butchery section. Environmental and Health & Safety standards were not an issue in those days with meat, flour, cheese, salt herring, kippers, boots, shoes, oilcake and fluke pills all being dispensed from this small shed and especially as it wasn’t unknown for the assistant to cast aside his manure creel to go and serve a customer in the shop.

Seada Thorcuill (Torcuill Macleod) 3 Garyvard

Torcuill Shiomon as he was known was a shoemaker who worked from a shed which still stands beside the steading at croft No 3. His business was confined to shoemaking mostly in the thirties. Torcuill himself died in 1944 at the age of 60.
The family had been visited by tragedy nine years earlier when two days before Christmas 1935 the three brothers, Alasdair, Calum and Calum Alasdair were out on the Caversta river which was covered with ice. Their dog slipped through a hole in the ice and whilst attempting to rescue the dog, Calum Alasdair went in under the ice and was tragically drowned aged 10 years. Alasdair tried to save his brother and was nearly drowned himself. He later received the Royal Humane Society Bravery Scroll. The scene of the tragedy is adjacent to the present cattle grid on the main road near Lake House.

Buth Mhurchaidh Buachaile, Murdo Macleod 3 Garyvard

Murchadh Buachaile who was Murdag Shiomon’s grandfather operated a shop from the family home around the turn of the century.  Murdag Shiomon (Murdina Macleod) revived the family tradition in the late twenties and continued till the early sixties. Murdag was a true entrepreneur of her time.  She bought and sold Harris Tweed, cattle and chickens as well as the normal provisions.  She even bought a van and operated a mini mobile shop travelling throughout the local villages.  Later on she branched into drapery, hardware and crockery and bought a larger van and she built a fairly large shop cum garage on the site of the present Council houses.

Torcuil Dhomhuill Thorcuil

Torcuil ran a shoemakers shop from a steading at 6 Garyvard before marrying and moving to Crossbost where he carried on his trade and also served as a postman.

An Buidhe

In earlier times another merchant used to go round the villages selling from his boat. An Buidhe lived on his boat with a deck referred to as a ‘smack’. Very little is known of his genealogy but the older generation remember him mooring his fishing smack in the bay and selling items of grocery.  Local people still remember his boxes of Cochranes tea which must have been the popular blend of the time.

Buth Dhonnachaidh an Mhoir, Duncan Mackay 3 Caversta.

Duncan’s shop was by the river on the Caversta side on the croft at number 3 where the site of the shop and a wall can still be identified. Duncan was the father of the councillor Donald John Mackay who served the area for a good number of years.

Buth Alasdair Rhuaraidh, Alasdair Mackinnon

The shop was attached to his house, Sea Haven on croft number 1.  Like most merchants he owned a number of boats over the years to bring goods from Stornoway.  One of those was the Try Again.

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Feb

09

Unidentified – from Gravir?

photos

This photo comes from Uig, where it was lying unidentified in the Comann Eachdraidh collection.  It’s marked on the back “M Campbell, Gravir” and there was a mark over the chap on the left.  But who was he, who are the others, what’s it doing in Uig and where was it taken?
Calum Macritchie believes that he is Murdo Campbell, brother of Mary Campbell, 13 Gravir, Mairi Dhomhnaill Ruaraidh who was married to a John Macdonald from Hacklete, Bernera.
Do you know any of the other people in the photograph?
Teen Anne from Uig has kindly solved the mystery as follows:-
“M Campbell was the late Maggie Campbell nee Saunders from 17 Valtos who married Norman Campbell who was missionary in Gravir.  Maggie supplied many of the Uig sheiling photographs in the CEU collection and I think everyone is from Uig. There should be a list of names, if not, I recognise most of them. Domhnall or Calum Beag a Creagain Mackay, 15 Valtos, Betsy Matheson nee Buchanan 7 Valtos, Catherine Smith 30 Valtos, not sure 3 Valtos or Christina Macleod 11 Valtos?, Bella Buchanan nee Smith 8 Valtos, Bell Bheag Mackay 9 Valtos and An “Eye Bheag” Buchanan 8 Valtos.”
Maggie Campbell is not in the photograph

Unidentified 96

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Feb

07

The Fireman in Southern Park, 1887

military / tales

by Angus ‘Ease’ Macleod, Calbost and Marybank.
Even now, more than a century after the event, the people of Lochs still talk about the body that was discovered in Southern Park on 2nd August 1887. The body, and his grave, are normally referred to as that of “the stowaway” or “the fireman” to this day, and there are only a few people still left in Lochs who know the story of the stowaway.
However, his death is registered and there is no doubt that such a person existed, even though the details of who he was or where he came from is not known. His death is noted in the register on January 1888 as an unnamed man about 30 years old whose body was found at “Colbal Hill” in Southern Park on 2nd August 1887. He is referred to as “the fireman”.
At that time people were under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the law of the land required that human remains be buried near where they were found. Probably that is why there are single graves to be found here and there. There is a grave on the writer’s croft called “Donald’s grave” and no one knows who Donald was.
It is said that Joseph Platt who took over the tenancy of the sporting estate of Pairc in 1886 when the Park Sheep farm was converted into a Deer Park, made enquires with a view to identify the remains. He approached the Federation of Shipping to see if they knew of any ship that might have been in the vicinity of Pairc at that time.
They were not aware of any ships being there and in the circumstances Mr Platt provided a coffin for the remains and gave it a decent burial where he was found, not far from Buthinish/Gearraidh-Riaghsaigh near the southern shore of Loch Shell, not far from the Black Burn. The grave is marked with two cairns of loose stones, one at each end of the grave. The place is well known to gamekeepers and others who move about that district.

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Feb

03

An Island Dresser

at home / crofting

dresser.jpg

The following account of a traditional dresser is taken from a publication by The Islands Book Trust ‘Back to the Wind, Front to the Sun’, a richly illustrated description of croft housing by Caroline Hirst based on the collections of the late Angus ‘Ease’ Macleod of Calbost, South Lochs. The book was launched on 18 October 2005 when Professor Jim Hunter gave the second annual Angus Macleod memorial lecture in Pairc school, Gravir.
On entering the living room (aig-an-teine), the most prominent piece of furniture would have been the dresser, which stood against the wall facing the central fire. It acted as both a work area for the housewife and a display area for the family’s precious items of china and other cherished items collected on travels away from the croft. The standard Highland design of dresser consisted of a base with either a two-door cupboard or an open area with a place to store large pots, above which would have been two drawers. The top of the dresser base would have acted as a work area for baking and the preparation of food. The display area was in the form of a plate rack, which sat above the base with three or four shelves. A distinctive feature of Scottish dressers is that each shelf incorporates a rail against which the plates lean and also prevents them from falling off.
Their leaning position would have also stopped the soot, which accumulated from the peat smoke, from collecting on the face of the plates. Like the box beds, the top of the dresser incorporated a sloping top, a further design feature to protect drips from the roof and soot spoiling the display area. On a regular basis the dresser would be taken outside and scrubbed, which over time gave it a bleached appearance. It was also a common practice to decorate the edges of the plate-rack shelf edges with lengths of scalloped newspaper as Angus showed in a photograph taken by himself of a fine example of a Lewis dresser from the Calbost Collection whilst still in Calbost.
Angus made in depth notes about this particular piece of furniture:

It is a typical Lewis dresser which I found in Calbost. It has two drawers and two cupboard doors in the bottom part. The top and bottom parts are constructed separately and then married together into one unit by the two arm boards at each side. There were three shelves, which were used in a practical way to hold dishes (as well as a display cabinet). The large plates at the top, then the medium plates in the centre and the small plates in the lower shelf. Eggcups, salt and other nick-nacks were placed on the two top shelves including ornaments. On the lower shelf the big bowls and very often the small ones were placed on top of the big bowls. The surface of the bottom part of the dresser was the working top where the housewife prepared the food in conjunction with the table. The food was served from the working top of the dresser and after the meal the dishes were washed at the dresser and put away, in other words the dresser functioned as a kitchen.
All crofts had at least one domestic cow and very often two. The domestic cow was a form of factory. It produced in the first place milk from which a variety of other items of food were generated such as cream, crowdie, sour milk and buttermilk. Jugs and bowls were therefore used extensively and the milk itself was set in basins of white and brown clay in the bottom part of the dresser and in a portable cupboard. You will see the jugs on the inner side of the working top of the dresser.
You will see a large ‘ashet’ or blue tray in the centre of the dresser. That blue traditional pattern was used as the crockery of almost every house. Once the girls began to follow the fish gutting round the Scottish and English ports, they brought home with them nice ornamental glassware and many other trinkets, very often stating ‘A Present from Wick or Yarmouth.’ There are some such items in the Calbost Collection.
Do not overlook the Bibles on the right hand side of the dresser surface, the clock that was my Grandfathers, was bought in 1896 for 7/6, which today would cost £37.50 and is still going. Also the English lever breast watch and chain belonged to the man of the house when duly dressed. Hanging on the left of the dresser is a small period shaving mirror.  It was common for the dresser top to be decorated with ‘scalloped’ newspaper edging.

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Feb

03

Unidentified Wedding

photos

Unidentified 96

Can anyone identify this family?

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Feb

03

From Patagonia to Crobeg

crofting / emigration / people

WHEN Charles Menendez MacLeod (Charlie Barley) bought the Crobeag Farm, including Eilean Chaluim Cille, in 1957, he was in essence returning to the land of his forefathers. It was in Garyvard, a short distance across Loch Erisort from St. Colms’ Isle that his great, great, great-grandfather, Torquil MacLeod, and his wife, Ann Matheson, lived in the late 17th and early 18th Century. Their son, Donald, moved over the Loch to Keose on his marriage to Ann MacDonald thereby establishing the family’s association with the croft at 5 Keose that was to remain their home until Charles’ father, Murdo, moved to Ropework Cottage, Stornoway, after his marriage to Chrissie MacKenzie. Chrissie was a descendant of Charles MacKenzie (1776-1845), of Leurbost, who had moved to 7 Keose around 1819. On the paternal side, his family had links to the Martins of Ensay, Harris, and the MacDonalds of Ranish.
Charlie’s father had left Keose to go and work on the sheep farming stations of Patagonia in South America. Bruce Chatwin’s book, In Patagonia, describes the setting up of the sheep farms in 1877 when Henry Reynard, an English trader in Punta Arenas, ferried a flock from the Falkland Islands and set it to graze on Elizabeth Island in the Straits of Magellan. It multiplied prodigiously and other merchants took the hint. The leading entrepreneurs were a ruthless Asturian, Jose Menendez, and his amiable Jewish son-in-law, Moritz Braun. The two were rivals at first, but later combined to assemble an empire of estancias, coal mines, freezers, department stores, merchant ships and a salvage department that was reputedly closer to piracy than salvage. Menendez died in 1918, leaving a proportion of his millions to King Alphonso XIII of Spain and was buried at Punta Arenas. The Braun and Menendez families continued to dominate the territory through their Company, La Anonima. They imported stud flocks from New Zealand, shepherds and their dogs from the Western Isles and farm managers from the British Army who stamped the smartness of the parade ground over the entire operation and turned the Province of Santa Cruz into a Spanish speaking outpost of the British Empire.
Murdo MacLeod spent several years in Patagonia in the employment of a family named Menendez. They were kindly and generous sheep farmers and Murdo enjoyed his time working with them so much so that when his son, Charles, was born in 1915, he was given the second name Menendez in tribute to Murdo’s affection for the family.
Charlie’s mother, Chrissie MacKenzie, was the daughter of Charles MacKenzie (born1853) and Kirsty MacKay whose forebears lived at 4 Achmore. On the maternal side, she was related to the MacAulays of Uig.

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Jan

30

The GAMA Award, 2009

events

The Gatliff Trust and the Angus Macleod Archive have combined forces to establish the GAMA (Gatliff Angus Macleod Archive) award, offering funds to a student or researcher at a British college or university for the summer of 2009.
The purpose of the award is to encourage research on an aspect of history, geography, culture or environmental studies, relevant to an appropriate area of the Western Isles. One successful applicant will receive a stipend and accommodation at one of the Trust properties and the resulting work will be published. For details and to apply, see the GAMA Award website; deadline for applications, 31 March 2009.
Herbert Gatliff (1897-1977), a pioneering member of the Outdoor Movement, was keen to see people, particularly the young, visit the Outer Hebrides. This enthusiasm led him to establish, in these Scottish islands, a network of crofters’ hostels which continues to thrive. Angus Macleod (1916-2002), born in Calbost in the South Lochs area of the Isle of Lewis, created a remarkable collection of material relating to many aspects of local life. This is now stored in the Angus Macleod Archive, housed at the Ravenspoint Centre, Kershader, close to his place of birth.

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Jan

28

Gravir School, 1950

children / education
Gravir School, 1953
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