The Shiant Isles with the Islands Book Trust

Photo by ßlϋeωãvε

The IBT annual talk on the Shiant Isles, followed (weather permitting) by a boat trip to the islands, in the company of Adam and Tom Nicolson who own the islands and who have spent many years researching the truths and legends.

Saturday 21 June, 10.30am
Marine Harvest shed, Lemreway, Pairc, Lewis

The Shiants are nowhere near Uig but there is a curious story attached to them regarding an Uigeach. The late Willie Matheson, historian and genealogist, related that Iain Dubh Chraidhig (Smith), personal attendant to Domhnall Cam (ca 1600) in Uig, was fishing in the Sound of Shiant and had taken his elderly mother along. Unfortunately the lady died, but as the fishing was a matter of urgency and he could not leave it, he embalmed her in a cave, in a manner not dissimilar to the drying of fish, before eventually returning to Uig with her body for burial. Tradition maintains that this Iain Dubh is an ancestor of the Smiths of Earshader, Valtos and Laxay.