The New Website

Welcome to the new-but-familiar CEUig.com. I hope it helps you to discover stories you may have missed previously. It’s also a little more robust behind the scenes, and has room for more in-depth resources that weren’t fitting on the front page very well. So what’s new here?

Welcome to the new-but-familiar CEUig.com. I hope it helps you to discover stories you may have missed previously. It’s also a little more robust behind the scenes, and has room for more in-depth resources that weren’t fitting on the front page very well. So what’s new here?

  1. Feature articles on the front page – just the best stuff, and the news. Most significant posts should appear in one or another of the categories but if you’re concerned about not missing a single thing, keep an eye on the Fresh Notes box in the right sidebar, on every page except the front page. You could subscribe to our RSS feed which will deliver every story straight to your chosen reader or inbox.  Edit: there’s a What’s New page now that list the fifteen most recent posts plus other updates to the site.
  2. More links to other related stories, also appearing in the sidebar. Every old story is still here and we’ve got over 500 now, so there must be some you’ve missed. You can also use the place and subject tags at the foot of the sidebar to focus on specific types of story, or do a text search with the box above.
  3. New pages on places, notably villages for now but with islands, estates and deserted settlements coming soon. These mostly consist of information, links and pictures from other parts of the website, or other sites, but they’ll grow to be a central point for related material.
  4. New pages with transcripts, lists and general accounts of historical issues, for background and to provide some original documents for your own research, organised under the History tab and with much more to come. We take requests so if there’s anything you particularly want to see, let us know.
  5. The Biscuit Tin. This is a way to collect your favourite stories on the site, into a single list for quick reference. Click the gold star at the foot of any page to add it to your list.
  6. Expanded galleries. There are more pictures in the galleries, accessible from different points across the website but most comprehensively from the Galleries pages.
  7. The Forum. This isn’t entirely new but hasn’t taken off yet, so I hope that any queries regarding genealogy and general history will be directed there.
  8. Coming very soon: tick-lists of the mills (drawn from Dr Finlay Macleod’s excellent book, with additions) and shielings (from Finlay Maciver’s maps) of Uig, suitable for those who are site-bagging. We will be adding to the lists and developing a database, and better maps.
  9. The links that used to live in the sidebar are on their own Links page now, and there are More Links in the form of our new Outer Hebrides group on the Diigo bookmarking service – see the page for more detail. It may be useful to researchers.
  10. A trimmed-down but full-content mobile version, which you’ll see automatically if you’re on a mobile device.
  11. For the future: thinking about online family trees (though there’s already Hebridean Connections) and our object catalogue, and more audio and video content. And more Gaelic.

There are a few aspects need work yet, so don’t be alarmed if you come across some oddness. Comments and input are always welcome, whether about the design, structure, content, direction or historical accuracy. This is still something of an experiment in putting all sorts of minute detail online in what is hopefully a palatable format, so by all means let us know what you think.

Thanks meanwhile those who completed the survey a few months ago, which really has informed the way the site is developing, and to Mike Graham for some useful advice. And as always, contributors of material of any kind will be embraced with enthusiasm.

-sarah