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The Silver Lady of Garynahine

From the Stornoway Gazette, 2 August 1960 and subsequent editions.

White Lady Startles Drivers:  a Garynahine Ghost Story

The “Garynahine Ghost,” which promised to be Lewis’s best authenticated spectre to date, has turned out to be a false alarm.  Several motorists had reported startling encounters near Garynahine Bridge with a tall woman, dressed in white to her toes, and carrying a staff, who suddenly loomed up in the light of their headlamps.  Drivers who braked and stopped said that the “white lady” peered in at them before vanishing into the night.

Among the first witnesses was SAC Keith Hodges, of RAF Uig, who saw the lady while driving back to camp from Stornoway on a Saturday night.  He said later – “It was a strange sight to see a woman, all in white, walking the road after 11pm.  I braked hard and she stared in at us.  Her face was white and expressionless.  I think she was wearing a black belt.”

One of his passengers, Cpl A Cox, said he and his friends has got “quite a fright”.  “This thing loomed up in front of us and then stopped at the side of the Landrover, peering in at us.  I don’t might telling you I got a scare.  We didn’t wait to see anything else, but drove off as fast as we could.  Our only idea at the time was to get out of it smartly.”

With them was SAC A Galbraith, who said – “Of course we got a fright.  She was dressed all in shining white and it looked very queer.”

Just ahead of the RAF Landrover was the RAF bus, most of the occupants of which were more than half convinced that they had seen a ghost.  The lady, whom they later christened “The Silver Lady”, stood motionless as the bus sped past.  Some of the airmen declared that she was surrounded by an eerie glow.

Mr Angus Macleod, Perceval Road, Stornoway, was the next to report an encounter with the strange lady.  “I was coming down from Uig about 11.10pm,” he said, “when I saw this woman coming towards me in the middle of the road.  She was dressed in a long gown, but it wasn’t white.  It had a kind of floral design.  She was carrying a stick, and she seemed to hold it up in front of the car, though I didn’t feel it touching the vehicle.  When I slowed down she stared in at me, and although it looked as if her lips were smiling, the rest of her face wasn’t.  I felt a cold shiver down my spine, and I still feel it every time I think about it.”

Continue reading “The Silver Lady of Garynahine”…

Norman Morrison’s Testimony

On 4 June 1883 the Napier Commission, chaired by Lord Napier, was in Miavaig to take evidence from crofters and others on issues surround land management and tenancy.  Among those interviewed was Norman Morrison, crofter and fisherman at Brenish, aged 61, who stated he had two milk cows, three young beasts, between fifteen and twenty sheep, and no horse, on a croft which he shared with his brother, who kept similar stock.  The following is slightly abridged.

Have you been fairly elected a delgate by the people of Brenish? Yes

How many people were present when you were elected? All the male population of the town.

Have you any statement to make on behalf of the people? I would say, in the first place, that they are crowded so much together that they have no way of living.  Our places were crowded first when the neighbouring township of Mealista was cleared [in 1838].  Six families of that township were thrown in among us; the rest were hounded away to Australia and America, and I think I hear the cry of the children till this day.  There were others came from various townships since at different times as these were being cleared, and I instance various examples – one from one place and one from another – and not one was placed in among us in that way, but accommodation was provided for him by subdividing the lots that were in the place.  We were deprived of the old rights of the township moorland pasture.  The half of the island of Mealista belong in the time of my grandfather to our township and a neighbouring township – we were deprived of that.  We got no abatement of rent when we were deprived of that but when Cameron lotted out the township the rent was increased by £30.

As you are sixty-one years of age, can you perhaps remember how many families there were in Brenish before the township was cleared and the people taken to Brenish? Between twelve and sixteen.

How many are there now? Forty-three.

How many of those are crofters paying rent to the proprietor? There are twenty-nine names on the rent roll.

And the rest are cottars? There are some of them who pay from 5s to 10s.

Then the number of the families has increased from sixteen to forty-three.  How many of that number do you think have come in from the outside and how many are the natural increase of the place? Seven came from the outside.  We also consider we have a grievance with respect to the herd of the march.  It is fourteen years since a herd was set apart for ourselves and the neighbouring tacksman, and we are quite willing to pay the half of the wages of that shepherd, but we have always had the idea that the neighbouring tacksman marching with us ought to pay the other half.  We are also complaining about the dyke that was build about thirty-four years ago.  It was built in the time of the destitution, and the people were paid for the building of it by so much Indian meal.  Four shillings or five shillings additional rent was placed upone every one that was on the rent roll at that date for this dyke, and we were under the impression that when the expense of putting up the fence was paid this 4s or 5s would be taken away.

Continue reading “Norman Morrison’s Testimony”…

Restoring the Rose

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This article was written by Elly Welch and first appeared in Events.  Thanks to Elly for permission to reprint and for the photo of John Macaulay with the Rose.  More pictures of the boat (before and during) can be found in the gallery.

Wandering along Valtos harbour a year ago you would hardly have noticed an old relic called Rose. Engulfed in undergrowth, all sun-bleached larch and broken thwarts, she was just another old boat rotting on the shore.

Walk there today and it is a different story. Thanks to Comann Eachdraidh Uig – Uig Historical Society – the pretty ‘double-ender’, one of the few surviving original Western Isles boats, has been restored to something of her former glory. She is unlikely to ply Loch Roag’s tides again but, for now at least, she will be preserved in situ, for posterity.

Rose, a rare example of the dipping lug open-boats once common locally, was built in Uig around ninety years ago. She was gifted to the Comann Eachdraidh last year by Valtos residents who had inherited her, but had no use for her. Previously, she was owned by consortium of local crofters and used for general inshore duties, from shifting sheep to fetching peats and seaweed. Modern boats finally made her redundant around twenty years ago. Since then she has lain where she was last dragged ashore, next to the tumbled walls of an old salthouse and herring store.

Continue reading “Restoring the Rose”…