Townships
Habost
Habost is said to be one of the oldest settlements in Park. The name is Scandinavian, the suffix “Bost” meaning a homestead or farm in Norse. Under the Highland clan system Habost was a tack and the various tacksmen surrounded themselves with small-holders on a year by year tenancy.
Kershader
Kershader is a village of 12 crofts on the south shore of Loch Erisort, opposite the village of Laxay in Kinloch. The name of the village is of Norse origin, possibly referring to “shieling of the marsh or thicket”. Shader is Norse for shieling, a shed at some distance from the main farm and at summer pastureland. Ker may represent either thicket, overgrown marsh or deer.
Garyvard
“A small village of straw thatched huts, built partly of stone and in pretty good repair, to which there is attached a considerable portion of arable land, but the inhabitants derive their chief support from fishing, the herring fishing is their great harvest. That fish being found in great numbers at the mouth of Loch Erisort in the months of May, June and July.” So the village was described in 1850.
Caversta
The village of Caversta is located on the south side of Loch Erisort, just across Tob Caversta from the somewhat larger village of Garyvard. It consisted of just four crofts, though the neighbouring hamlet of Torostay was considered an extension of Caversta so the two crofts there became numbers 5 and 6.
Cromore
Cromore is situated on the peninsula between Loch Cromore and Loch Erisort. Land raiders could be stopped at the narrow neck of land where the bridge now fords Loch Cromore and the waters of Loch Erisort that flow down the south side of Crobeg and at the east end of Loch Cromore. Two very significant sites at Cromore are Dun Cromore and Eilean Chaluim Chille.
Marvig
Marvig is a village of 24 crofts on Loch Marvig, just south of the mouth of Loch Erisort. Similar to the other villages in Park, it was evidently at one time wooded, as the roots of trees are to be found in nearly all the holdings.
Calbost
The crofting village of Calbost in the Island of Lewis nestles round a fresh-water loch known as Loch-Dubh, which empties itself into the bay of Calbost, Camus Chalboist on the Minch coast of Lewis, about 9 miles by sea south of Stornoway but about 30 miles by road from the town, because the road winds its way round the long arm of sea known as Loch Erisort.
Gravir
The earliest history of Gravir starts sometime well before 1800 and possibly as early as 1766, with the village increasing in size as the run-rig system was abolished between 1850 and 1852. Some references go back to 1766 and it may be that this is when the first residents moved to the area.
Orinsay
Orinsay was cleared in 1843, and despite raids in 1891, not resettled until 1922-3. In the interval it was run as a sheep farm and then a deer park, under the tenancy of Walter Scott of Hawick, then Michael Scobie, then PP Sellar (son of Patrick Sellar of Sutherland) and then Roderick Martin of Crobeg.
Lemreway
Lemreway was let by 1776 to a Stornoway merchant, Norman Macleod; by 1790 the tack has passed to his brother Murdo, and by 1795 to their cousin Kenneth Macleod. The Shiant Isles were originally included in this tack, and later it was combined with Steimreway.
Stiomreway
Stiomreway is a substantial village on Loch Shell, long deserted, on the east side of Tob Stiomrabhaigh. It benefits from a beautiful setting and good inshore fishing.The nearby villages of Lemreway and Orinsay were cleared in 1843 to make room for “the tide of sheep” at Park Farm, under the tenancy of Walter Scott. Stiomreway was not cleared at the time, but was an isolated village inside the boundaries of the farm.