Comunn Eachdraidh na Pairc  .  Pairc Historical Society

Posts under ‘people’

Recipes from Pairc from the 70’s

A new addition to our publications, this recipe book was originally compiled by Pairc Community Association in the late 70’s and is now reprinted by Pairc Historical Society.
  The book has 44 pages of recipes including a small number in Gaelic. The recipes relate to a time when there were far less choice of ingredients [...]

NEW BOOKLET ON EISHKEN ESTATE LAUNCHED IN ORINSAY

An impressive illustrated new publication about the history of the Eishken estate in Pairc, Lewis, written by well-known historian David Jones, was launched by Comunn Eachdraidh na Pairc at Orinsay Village Hall recently.
The huge extent of the peninsula of Pairc, which but for a narrow neck of land between the heads of Loch Erisort and [...]

Photographs from the Estate of Mary MacIver

The enclosed photographs are from the Estate of Mary MacIver, Verdun, Montreal ( Mairi Anndra) of 15 Gravir. Most of the photographs seem to be taken in Gravir and include family and neighbours.

Hudson plane crash site photographs

A few months ago we published an article on the Hudson bomber which crashed at Mulhagery in Southern Pairc and received the note below from Dave Earl.
‘Nice article on the Hudson. I am an aviation historian/author living E of Manchester and have for a number of years been researching losses of aircraft around the Scottish [...]

Calum Nicolson (Calum Beag)

AIG AN OBAIR – From an article in Tional April 1994
When I left school in Lemreway in 1934, I got a job as a postman, delivering letters to thirty-two crofts in Lemreway, thirteen crofts in Orinsay and four crofts in Stiomreway.  This was a departure from the accepted custom as boys usually took a job [...]

The Press Gang at Keose circa 1802

‘Leac-na-Gillean‘ is remembered in the traditions of  lochs as the geographical feature where the Press-gang put 32 young local men on board small boats against their will and ferried them out to a waiting warship that was hiding behind the Island of Tabhaid at the mouth of Loch Erisort. Subsequently 12 of them returned but [...]

Cailleach an Deacoin, an Entertainer From Gravir

Murdo Matheson from Gravir, South Lochs was well-known throughout Lewis as the entertainer Cailleach an Deacoin.
Listen to the Cailleach entertaining the crowds at Stornoway Town Hall
-cailleach-an-deacoin
The name Murdo Matheson doesn’t instantly conjure up any particular images in the mind, but mention the name ‘Cailleach An Deacoin‘ and you can be assured that a smile [...]

Kershader man shot

Attacked on Street
Murdo Macleod, a native of Kershader Lochs, who for some time was employed in the Labour Exchange at Stornoway, and is presently a supervisor in the Castleford Labour Exchange, was last week shot in the thigh at Leeds, and had to be removed to the General Hospital there. In connection with the affair, [...]

Cromore School Early Teachers

The school in Cromore was opened on June 16, 1879, when John Cumming (Rogart) was appointed headmaster. He transferred to Fidigarry the following year.
Successive appointments were:
Alex M. Morrison (Barvas) 26th April 1880
Robert Carry (Midlothian) 1st July 1881
Isabella Campbell (Dunvegan) 1st November 1882
John Smith (Balallan) 1st August 1884
Johanna Macdonald (Barra) 2nd February 1887
William Bruce 1st September [...]

The Royal Mail came by creel

From an article in Tional – May 1992
The history of the delivery of mail in Pairc is a story of considerable achievement by the handful of men and women whose determination, vigour and sense of purpose enabled their small, remote communities to receive the advances in communications offered by the Post Office in the second [...]

Nurse Isabella Macaskill – Gravir

Isabella MacAskill, the third eldest child of nine belonging to Donald  (Domhnull Og Dhomhnuill a’ Phiobair) and Peggy MacAskill (Peigi Ruadh MacLennan)was born at the Buaile Ghlas, opposite 32 Gravir in 1885.
As a young woman she emigrated to Canada and worked as a cook in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She saved her earnings and when she [...]

Gaelic students visit Gravir Museum

A group of Gaelic students spent an interesting week in the Pairc community as part of a new initiative by Co-Chomunn na Pairc.
The residential course was based at Ravenspoint in Kershader with students staying in the on-site hostel. Each day the students had a Gaelic class in the morning and in the afternoon they visited [...]

The Best Kind of Education

The Angus Macleod archive, now accessible to everyone at the Ravenspoint Centre, Kershader, South Lochs, contains much material on the early history of education in Lewis, and particularly the Pairc area where the late Angus ‘Ease’ Macleod was born at Calbost in 1916.  Visitors can read about the first parish school of Lochs established in [...]

A Brief History of Donald Smith, Cromore

An extract from our ‘Aig an Obair’ series published in our newsletter,  Tional and based on an original recording in Donald’s own words.
Here is a brief history of the life of Donald Smith, 15 Cromore.  His father was Finlay, son of  ‘Big John Muldonaich’, and his mother was Ishbel, daughter of Roderick.
“I was born in [...]

From Patagonia to Crobeg

WHEN Charles Menendez MacLeod (Charlie Barley) bought the Crobeag Farm, including Eilean Chaluim Cille, in 1957, he was in essence returning to the land of his forefathers. It was in Garyvard, a short distance across Loch Erisort from St. Colms’ Isle that his great, great, great-grandfather, Torquil MacLeod, and his wife, Ann Matheson, lived in [...]