Miavaig
Rev DA Macrae was born in Miavaig and lived latterly in Harris. He was interviewed by Maggie Smith in November 2004, and died in July 2005.
Our home Miavaig House was built in 1855 for my grandfather James Macrae, who was the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and was also an Inspector of the Poor. He was responsible for the Parish of Uig which in those days reached as far as Carloway. At this time there was great poverty and the Destitution Board sent a boat into Loch Roag to deliver meal for distribution amongst the poor. There had been widespread potato blight and I’ve heard of one of the Destitution roads built at this time, in Geshader in this district. This was known as Rathad a’Bhuntata as those building the road were paid in potatoes.
I remember a jetty in front of Miavaig House; this was used to offload the supplies for the destitution stores. The meal store was part of Miavaig House. As the years passed the house was being flooded by the tide, it was eventually knocked down and today Miavaig House is higher up the shore. At low tide the old jetty, used to unload the stores can still be seen today. But in my young days a relative of ours, Duncan Macrae from Callanish had the first motor boat I ever saw, and he brought stores and people to Miavaig pier about three times a week. In those days the Uig people travelled by sea to Callanish if they were going to Stornoway, or any other part of the island, as it saved the very long walk to Garynahine.