Mealista Burials

Every summer, some visitors to Mealasta are puzzled by the earthworks, and the group of small stones that are situated to the west of the World War II powerhouse. The first edition Ordnance Survey map published in 1854 shows ruins and a graveyard close to a large rock called Clach an Teampuill. There are many small upright stones roughly arranged in rows, and a few flat slabs. From time to time human bones fall out of the seaward side of this old burial ground. At the northern side of the graveyard is a large rectangular slab inscribed with some letters. Unfortunately the rain, wind and sea spray have combined to erode the surface, and obscure the meaning of most of the words. Depending on the light, it is just possible to make out that the person commemorated was a fisherman, probably called John, who drowned off Vatersay, in the Southern Isles. It must be assumed that his body eventually washed up on the shore at Mealasta.

A vague local story tells of ship wrecked sailors buried in the area, and Calum Iain Buchanan No 11 Breanish used to show visitors a small patch of ground to the south of the graveyard where ‘strangers’ were reputed to be buried. However the main burial ground contains the lairs of generations of Mealasta people. In fact the last person to be interred there was Effie Mackay in March 1939. Close to the graves are the ruins of two small buildings. One of these, constructed of dressed stones is the Teampuill referred to on the map. Some say that it is the Shrine of St.Catan. Standing in the small rectangular remains of the Teampuill, it is easy to imagine that you can still hear (as Norman Morrison recalled to the Napier Commission in 1883), the crying of the children as the evicted inhabitants gathered their few possessions, and left their houses for ever. None of the old graves have any form of identification, for nobody had the money to spend on such things. Mealasta was reputed to be one of the largest townships in Uig at one time, and the extent of the cultivated ground indicates there was once a considerable population. In 1838, the people of Mealasta were in the words of Norman Morrison, either “thrown in amongst the people of Breanish or were hounded away to Australia and America”. The land they had occupied for many generations was about to be let to sheep farmers from Kintail, so they would have to go elsewhere!

There is a local tradition that any unidentified body found washed up on the seashore had to be buried outwith the cemeteries used by local people. There are at least six isolated graves that I have been shown along the coast line between Mealasta and Mangersta. If the identity of an unfortunate seaman found on the shore was not known, then he was buried close to the find site, and the grave was usually marked with a stone at the head and foot. So it is quite surprising to find not only the grave of a drowned ‘unknown stranger’ seaman buried amongst those of the Mealasta folk, but that he has a headstone to identify him! One possible answer to the mystery is that in 1875 Mealasta was a farm occupied by the Mitchell family, and they probably just buried the remains in the nearest burial ground with no regard for the old tradition. Perhaps there was something to identify this poor fisherman whose body finally came ashore at Mealasta.

It was not unusual for foreigners from many parts to travel along the west coast of Uig in the summer. These waters were once very productive and popular fishing grounds. The boats and their crews were chasing the shoals of herring, or line fishing for cod and ling. The area was a particular favourite of the fishermen of the East Coast of Scotland. In 1861, the Census records a group of fishermen and their cook from Rosehearty near Fraserburgh, living temporarily on Mealasta Island. Other boats came from ports on the Moray coast. One particular boat was a 56 foot scaffie, called the St.Kilda. In 1875, the skipper was a thirty year old Alexander Thomson, known in his home port as Sanee Caukie, and among the crew were two of his younger brothers. They live in Branderburgh, Lossiemouth, and sailed round the north of Scotland each season. They were familiar with the Atlantic coast of the Western Isles, and were friendly with many of the local fishermen. Their boat was extremely seaworthy, and at the time one of the most popular type of fishing boats in use in the north-east. The design owed a lot to the Norse galleys of an earlier period. A photograph of Wick harbour in 1865 shows hundreds of scaffies at anchor. They had a rounded bow, a shortish keel, and a steeply raked stern so that the rudder was actually beneath the boat. In crowded harbour conditions, such as Stornoway at the height of the herring season, the rudder was well protected from damage. The scaffie was cheap and quick to build (£6 in 1815), and light for drawing up the beach. Simple to operate and able to hold a large catch, it was an ideal boat for fishing on the West Coast. By 1875, they were building two-masted models with dipping lugsails, and some boats even had three masts. The larger scaffies were partially decked, and pictures show them returning to port so heavily laden that the waterline was only inches away from the deck. The most famous sailing fishing boats of East Coast fleet were the Zulus. The first of this style of craft was not built until 1879, when its designer combined the best features of the Scaffie and the Fifie boats. It was an instant success, and thousands were produced.

On June 22^nd 1875, the Lossiemouth scaffie St.Kilda (INS 472) was moored in the Sound of Vatersay. The two Thomson brothers, John aged 27 and Joseph aged 25 set off in a small boat with oars and a sail, to obtain provisions in Castlebay. A sudden squall must have caught the small craft and capsized her, and the two young men were drowned. Joseph’s body was found soon after on the Vatersay shore, but there was no trace of his brother. John must have been carrying some form of identification, or perhaps he was wearing a flotation garment on which was the name of the boat. His body eventually came to rest on a beach at Mealasta, 85 miles to the north. He was duly buried in the small graveyard at Rudha ‘an Teampuill. Somehow his family got to know of his whereabouts. Two headstones were commissioned by the mother of the young men. She had been widowed only 4 years before, when her husband William was lost overboard from the sailboat Henrietta in Buckie Bay. One headstone was prepared for Vatersay and the other for Mealasta.

John Thomson, the great grandnephew of the two Thomson brothers, visited the graves 130 years after the tragic accident. He discovered that the headstone in Vatersay was vertical, and had therefore survived the ravages of time, and weather. From the inscription on this stone it is now possible to determine what was once written on the Mealasta gravestone. John was a fisherman himself, and skippered various boats for 37 years. his last boat was called St.Kilda after his great grandfather’s boat. He regularly fished off Rockall, but the Flannan Isles shoal was his favourite hunting ground for haddock, whiting, skate, place and turbot. In 2005, he also visited his friends amongst the fishing folk of Carloway and Barra. John retired some years ago, but due to the European Common Fisheries Policy, his sons have had to sell their boat, and after seven generations the family fishing heritage has come to an end!

The fishing grounds off the Flannans have also changed in recent times, with very few fish to be caught there. People at the upper-end remember looking out to the Flannans on a winter’s night and seeing the lights of so many trawlers that you would have thought it was a large town! Nowadays it is quite rare to see a single boat out there

John Thomson’s father was one of eight brothers, all fishermen, three of whom have no known grave save the sea. In a letter John told me of the hardship and the many injustices that fishermen have had to endure over the years, and reminded me that the loss of fishermen’s lives should be counted as the real cost of the fish on our plates!

I would like to thank Iain Buchanan, Islibhig and J.W.C.Thomson, Lossiemouth for all their information.

Dave Roberts, Islibhig.