Life in Uig – Comann Eachdraichd Uig

The Old Lewis House: A View from 1902

The Report on the Social Conditions of the People of Lewis (1902) by the Crofters Commission gives a detailed account of the traditional Lewis blackhouse, which agitated the minds of reformers from Sir James Matheson onward, and the measures taken from about 1880 to improve it, particularly with regard to sanitation.

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An Ceistear: Darkness in Uig

“When I was born, and for the period of 23 years after, the whole inhabitants of the parish were sunk in dark ignorance of God. There was not so much as a form of Godliness in the whole place. Wickedness of all descriptions committed in broad daylight ”

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Before the Dingwall Sheriff

George Gillies, residing at Grista , and John Maclean, residing at Fimisgarry , in the parish of Uig and Island of Lewis, accused of having broken into the parish church of Uig, and stolen therefrom a waterproof coat, some carpenters’ tools, and a pane of glass, pleaded not guilty.

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Peats of Fire Lighting the Way

The Rev Angus Maciver was the son of Angus Maciver “An Ceistear” (the Catechist), born at Reef in 1799. The family lived at Tobson on Great Bernera from 1835 to 1853. This extract from The Life of a Lewis Catechist, published in the Stornoway Gazette in 1971-2, is Rev Maciver’s memory of meeting-house nights.

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A New School for Mangersta

There had evidently been a small school at Mangersta in the 1820s and in the neighbouring village of Carnish in the 1840s, but when both those townships were turned into farms there was no population requiring a school, until 1911.

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Wartime Shops, Vans and Buses

Donald John Macleod was brought up in Enaclete during the war. He recalls the shops, grocery vans and buses that were the source of ample provisions, news and craic at the time.

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Stores for the FP Manse, 1939

receipt from Cyril Goodge (petrol and provisions at Miavaig) for the Free Presbyterian Manse, date 13 September 1939 – the day after the induction of Rev John Angus Macdonald as FP minister in Uig, so presumably he is setting out his kitchen. It’s also just a few days after the start of the war. Rationing began in January 1940.

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Calling Breanish

After years of patient waiting, Breanish township has at long last been linked to the world outside by telephone.

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RAF Party Stuck at Achmore

In the winter of 1961, the Commanding Officer of RAF Aird Uig and twenty-six of his officers and men were stranded in Stornoway while returning from the first night of the charity concert organised by the camp in the Town Hall.

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In the Freezer

There are no safes for breaking in the Outer Hebrides, but there’s treasure more worth lifting in the crofter’s huge deep freeze. A verse from the Stornoway Gazette: we didn’t go hungry in 1972.

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A Serious Accident at Cliff

After the end of the Great War, dangerous materials were still washing up on the beach. All credit to Nurse Maclean for her tender care of Murdo Macleod, Cliff, in 1919.

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Gamekeeper finds missing airman, 1959

From the Stornoway Gazette, 7 July 1959: The Commanding Officer of the R.A.F. station at Aird Uig has expressed gratitude…

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Wartime Enaclete

Thanks to Donald John Macleod, Enaclete and Bridge of Don, for these memories of Enaclete during the 1940s. As a…

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Wedding Telegrams of the 1960s

Our wedding collection is growing slowly but surely, and new in today are 1960s wedding telegrams and some lovely photos.…

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Sandy and Mary, 1959

From the Stornoway Gazette supplement, 18 December 1959. Wedding bells have been ringing in Mangersta for the past year. Cupid…

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Some Faces in Winter

CE Uig hosted a photographer earlier this month, Gawaine Meechan, who was taking photos of as many as would stand…

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Life under St Kilda

There is a set of spectacular photos of the marine world under St Kilda, over on the new Ionad Hiort…

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Frosty days in Uig

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Of Finns and Fairies

This is the final section of an interesting and detailed piece on the Pygmies Isle (first mentioned by Dean Monro in…

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Holidaying in Uig, 1926

These new-to-us pictures come from the albums of the late Roberta Maclennan, whose brother Duncan was the doctor in Uig…

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