1841 - Caoraich Bhàna an Àite nan Daoine – Sheep Where Once There Were People
Vuia Mhòr cleared – to Geshader, Balallan and Cape Breton
According to the 1841 Census 1981 lived in Uig, 700 in the Valtos peninsula. The early clearances and the removal of grazings left the interior free for sheep farming – hence the view from Alexander MacDonald’s door in Crowlista in 1883, which had changed little since the late 1830s:
“… we poor people have been sent to a headland of the sea … Many were sent from the other townships that were cleared – poor people that could not go away to America … When I open my door there is no place within the range of my sight except where there are sheep …”
Napier Commission Report, 1884
Photo © Seatrek