Orinsay, along with Lemreway, was cleared in the 1840s, and fourteen new crofts were created there by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland (BoAS) in 1922.  These remain today.

By contrast, Steimreway has been uninhabited since Donald Morrison became the last resident to leave in the 1940s.  The land was raided and subsequently “unofficially” settled in 1922 by four families from Lemreway and one from Calbost.  By 1939 only two families remained.   Today, unlike nearby Orinsay, Steimreway is totally deserted.  Interestingly, Steimreway was occupied until the late 1850s, long after Orinsay and Lemreway had both been cleared, at which point families were moved from there to occupy seventeen of the cleared crofts at Lemreway.  They had their land at Steimreway on a long lease direct from the estate and therefore could not be easily evicted.  However, following a change in the tenancy of the Park sheep farm in the 1850s they accepted an offer from the estate to give up their leases in return for croft land at Lemreway.

Glen Gravir is a scheme undertaken by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland (DoAS), the successor body to the BoAS, in 1933 to provide fifteen house sites and allotments for fishermen living in the township of Gravir.  The DoAS acquired on feu approximately sixty one acres.  Each of the fifteen holdings was approximately four acres in size.  In 1933, individual loans of up to £200 were made available by the DoAS to any tenants at Glen Gravir who required financial assistance to build a house.  Seven loans were given, each of £200.  In 1937 DoAS building loans were offered to some of the other tenants, though, so far, research efforts have been unable to uncover to how many and the sums involved.

The Glen Gravir scheme is interesting because it is one of a relatively small number of inter-war official land settlement schemes specifically for fishermen, arising from the Congested Districts Act of 1897.  Most inter-war fishermen schemes under this Act were on the island of Lewis.  The others were at Lower Bayble in Point in 1921, Cross Skigersta near Ness in 1923, Knock in Point in 1925, Leurbost in North Lochs in 1927 and Sandwick Parks to the east of Stornoway in 1932.  They are an important but overlooked part of land settlement activity.  Little appears to have been written about them and, so far, research has not unearthed much information about them.  In total these six schemes on Lewis provided 233 small holdings though these are not crofts in the legal sense of the fourteen crofts which exist at Orinsay.  There are two inter-war land settlement schemes close to South Lochs at Keose Glebe and Aline.  However, little or no information has been found so far on the Keose Glebe scheme from the government department files at the National Archives of Scotland. Similarly so for the fishermen scheme at Leurbost which consists of approximately thirty five acres of common pasture resumed as feues to provide twelve allotments.

Some aspects of the Orinsay, Steimreway and Glen Gravir land settlement schemes have been well documented in the excellent “History” series produced by the Pairc Historical Society.  However, much of their story and that of other Lewis land settlement schemes remains, as yet, untold.  Bob Chambers, who retired last year and is now a PhD student at the Centre for History of the UHI Millennium Institute, the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands, is currently undertaking research into the planning, process and legacy of inter-war land settlement schemes throughout the Outer Hebrides, Skye and Raasay.  This includes all of the above mentioned schemes.  Bob attended a meeting of the Pairc History Society at the end of September to explain his research and ask for help on further information that anyone might be able to provide on any of the South Lochs schemes or any of the others on Lewis.  When Bob’s PhD research is complete, in two years time, he intends to make available to the Pairc History Society (and any other organisation who wants it) the information he has collected.  In addition he will contribute to any updates of relevant existing publications in the Pairc History Society series and help with any appropriate new titles.

Bob is hoping that Pairc History Society members and other readers of the Society’s Tional newsletter who might have any information, including maps and plans of any of the schemes or photographs, will contact him.  Also, if members know of other residents who might have relevant information, Bob hopes that they will be told of his research and encouraged to contact him.  Bob will make further contributions to Tional over the next couple of years if new information comes to light from his research.  Bob can be contacted as follows:

Bob Chambers, 2 St George’s Road, Hexham, Northumberland NE46 2HG. Tel 01434 605846

E mail: bobc1951@greenbee.net

Alternatively, if anyone prefers, this can be done instead by initially contacting the chairman of Pairc History Society, Donnie Morrison at Pairc House, Habost, Lochs, Isle of Lewis HS2 9QB tel 01851 880480 or E mail: donnie@cepairc.com

In addition, Bob would be very interested, next year, in speaking face to face with any family members of the original land settlers at Orinsay, Steimreway and Glen Gravir, particularly in the case of Orinsay and Glen Gravir if they are living on or working the family small holding.  Oral history is a rich source of information for the sort of research Bob is undertaking.  It also provides an opportunity for the voice of the crofter and settler to be heard to help balance the views from official sources.  In order to capture these views for posterity, where individuals are willing to do so, Bob would like to record his conversations with family members.  But this isn’t essential if someone is willing to speak to Bob but does not wish the conversation to be recorded.  If you, or another family member, or someone else you know would be willing to speak to Bob in relation to any of the three schemes, on whatever basis, on his visit next year, please get in touch with him direct or through Donnie.

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 in a fishing boat on leaving school.  There were plenty of opportunities, as there were nine boats fishing our of Lemreway at the time, all requiring a crew of five adults and a boy.  The boats left Lemreway on a Monday and were based in Stornoway until they returned the following Saturday morning.

Delivering the mail to Stiomreway was quite an arduous task.  It was over two miles from Orinsay over rough moorland and around lochs.  In those days, most of the mail comprised of catalogues and parcels from J. D. Williams and similar mail order firms.  The catalogues were often ordered for the girls in the Village by boys under pet names and I became quite expert at spotting the fakes and most of them found a resting place at the bottom of the loch about a mile out of Orinsay.  Stiomreway was eventually abandoned in 1941.

This occupation was only available when the regular postman was on holiday or ill.  Between times, I found work at one of the road building projects going on at the time and soon felt I was well on the way to becoming a millionaire.  With our newly earned wealth, five of us ordered brand new bicycles from – wait for it – J. D. Williams, of course.  They cost £5 each and we paid them up at ten shillings per week or 50p in to-day’s currency.  They were called ‘Flights’ and we were very proud of them.  We collected a few cuts and bruises before we mastered them, but we soon got the hang of them and felt very proud of ourselves riding to Church at Gravir on Sunday, scattering the rest of the congregation as we sped by on the four-mile journey.  I suppose we were as popular as the Red Arrows are to-day.

When the regular cook on my father’s boat took ill, I was recruited for the job.  We steamed up the Minch to the Butt of Lewis and set our fifty nets about 9 o’clock in the evening, cut the engines and let the boat drift on the tide.  Everybody slept except one man who kept watch, as there were hundred of boats and nets at sea at the same time.  There were six ‘hole in the wall’ bunks in the cabin, with two blankets and a pillow on each.  We slept fully clothed, except for our sea boots.

Though the Minch can be very beautiful in summer, there is always a swell and the rocking motion soon brought sleep.  Babies in Lewis at that time never had prams or cots and were rocked to sleep in a cradle, the more the baby cried, the more vigorous the cradle was rocked so it was never a problem for fishermen to sleep in turbulent seas when they had to.  The call to hit the deck came at midnight and I would approach the capstan bleary-eyed and semi-conscious to start hauling the heavy, thick tarred rope as the nets were hauled in.  Before starting, we took a cup of tea and a Ness biscuit.  Hard, Ness biscuits and the crews’ teeth must have been sound, for they were devoured very quickly.

As soon as I got down into the hold, the first thing I did was to empty my stomach, fresh Ness biscuits and all!  The pervading stench of tar, paraffin fumes from the engine room and rotten fish from the bilges all combined to envelop me in a cloud of nausea, so it was not an un-natural thing to do.  I was down there coiling for at least three hours and anything up to five if we had a fair catch.  By the time I got up to deck level, rising on the coil beneath my feet, I was ready to fall asleep from exhaustion and lack of fresh air, but a well-directed sea booted foot always persuaded me to stay alert and on the job.  How pleased I was to get back on deck and enjoy the fresh sea breeze, for I never experienced sea sickness while I was up on deck.

As soon as the nets were hauled in, we would build up a head of steam and set off for Stornoway with our catch and a hard day’s graft was just beginning.  The crew would start to clean the nets, while I scrubbed the tar off my hands and face before gutting and cleaning twelve herrings and setting them to the boil.  By the time we reached Stornoway, everyone would have been fed and I would be sent off to the fish market with a sample of our catch as soon as we tied up at the quay.  Another member of the crew would go and see what the price for a cran (four baskets) of herring was that day – it was usually around the £2 mark, rising and falling according to the amounts being landed.  When the catch was unloaded, the crew would turn in after mending the rips or tears in the nets.

While the rest of the crew slept away the afternoon, I had to go ashore and buy provisions and prepare the dinner on my return.  This was always soup, meat and potatoes followed by tea which was eaten before we set off in the late afternoon or early evening.  Most of the boys working as cook/coilers used to set aside a dozen herrings and when we got a chance, we sold them to the local people at a place called “Billingsgate” at the harbour wall.  On one of my first ventures there, my aunt, who stayed in Town, came on the scene and I sold her the lot for 1/6 (7 1/2p).  I didn’t know she was entitled to them free until I got a severe reprimand from my father for offending his sister.

My cousin and my father were both practical jokers and used to perform mischief on the sleeping bodies of other members of the crew.  It was not unusual to wake up with a moustache made with soot from the pans or a crab stuck down the front of your trousers.  One day, I got my own back and put a moustache and goatee beard on both my father and cousin while they slept.  One was laughing at the other as we sat around the cabin table later, neither knowing that the other was the same, while the rest of the crew never let on.  As they were both going ashore into the Town, I had to tell them eventually, but not before they were at a safe distance standing on the quay.

I served in a similar capacity on two or three other boats and the customs and lifestyles were very much the same – except one, which I took on in desperation.  The boy who was on before me only lasted a week and no wonder, for the crew were all a bunch of miserable people who were never satisfied with anything you did for them.  They wanted their herring fried in the morning – imagine!  It is not an easy job frying a herring straight out of the ocean and it was usually served to them in fragments like peas on a plate.  The skipper smoked about three yards of black twist tobacco every day and God help us if he ran out.  Once I remember sheltering from a gale in Scalpay and he sent me ashore to buy some black twist in the local shop, but they did not have any.  When I told him the news, he went into an uncontrollable rage.  A cook from one of the other boats was visiting when I broke the bad news and he, being older and wiser than me, told the skipper that Woodbines smoked two at a time would ease his craving.  I was sent back to the shop and soon returned with twelve packets of Woodbines.  There was method in my friend’s madness, for after smoking five cigarettes, the skipper realised they were no substitute for the real thing and discarded the other eleven packets to our mutual benefit.  Despite the storm, we had to let go and head for Tarbert – a Town with plenty of black twist.  It was blowing a force nine gale, but we made it!

While I was on that boat, I was very unhappy.  Nothing was allowed except by the book and there was no tolerance for mischief and fun, although many a time I felt like black polishing the lot of them.  I was with them for the summer season from May to September and was rewarded with a wage of £2 10/- (£2.50).  It’s doubtful if any of the crew earned more, as they were an unlucky lot and it was a good job for me that I had ‘Billingsgate’ to supplement my meagre earnings.

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 and a chuckle of remembrance will emerge from your audience.

Born on the 4^th January 1904 Murdo Matheson was the seventh child of a family of 13, in the village of Gravir, Pairc. He went to school like most of his contemporaries at that time where he faired averagely. He left at the age of 14 to seek employment. Between the ages of 15 and 18 he held a variety of jobs including kipper making and road building.

Around 1925, Murdo decided to emigrate to Canada and was due to sail on the ‘Marloch’ but contracted measles which delayed his passage. Luckily for him he was able to travel a fortnight later. Several years were spent there where he laboured on farms. However, his luck was to change when he heard that there was good money to be made working on the production line of a motorcar company called ‘Briggs Bodies’ in the American city of Detroit.

After six years working for Briggs, Murdo returned to Gravir for a six-week holiday with a return ticket in his pocket. He intended to go back, get married and lease a farm, not necessarily in that order, but Briggs advised him to delay his return due to the depression. After two winters at home Briggs offered him a job at Dagenham car works in Glasgow but this was to last only eight months due to a recession in 1936. It was during this time that his father passed away and Murdo took the decision to return home for a time.

In 1939 he went back to Glasgow to work in a shipyard where he worked for seven years. He was called up twice during the war but the shipyard refused to release him. He then returned to Gravir where he worked the land – crofting and weaving until he retired at the age of sixty-seven.

  The Cailleach entertains in the Lewis Retirement Centre

Before the outbreak of war a committee was set up to organise concerts to raise funds for the local hospital in Stornoway. Murdo was actively involved and they staged two concerts a year. It was here that the Cailleach was born. The Cailleach was based on a local housewife and was first introduced to the public in sketches. The Gravir school was one of his early venues in the late 1940s and early 1950s and it would be packed to capacity on a Friday night, with a dance to follow the performance.

Before long the Cailleach was playing to a packed Town Hall, and many other venues where she became quite famous and much sought after. Murdo took his stage roll very seriously and it is said that he kept notes on the back of his handbag as prompts. It was difficult to get him to perform but if the cause was good then he could usually be persuaded. Cailleach An Deacoin’s clothes came from a variety of places – the skirt from a friend in Marvig, the blouse from a lady in Crossbost, the shawl from a lady in Gravir, the umbrella was a walking stick with black cloth round it, the petticoat was a piece of lace sewn to the inside of the skirt. He made the wig himself and the shoes were Wellingtons that had been cut.

Besides his considerable talents as an entertainer, Murdo, as the seventh son of a seventh son, was known to be a healer. Chrissie (Chisholm) Morrison remembers him:

He was very much in demand as a natural healer and people used to ask him to wash his hands in silver and then come to lay his healing hands on someone suffering from Tineas an Righ (a type of carbuncle) or some such. I was surprised that, when he died, no-one mentioned this side of his personality as it was supposedly a well-known fact with people going to the Gravir bus-driver with an empty bottle for the driver to give to Murdo to effect the cure. I often heard of those stories and thought that perhaps silver has some healing properties and could help in some cases, even without a natural healer!

Murdo remained a bachelor; sometimes he would be asked how he would feel if there were a woman in the house, to which he would reply, “She would only upset things”. When he would be told of the benefits of having a woman at home to do his cooking, cleaning etc he would say “well that would be great as long as she went home afterwards.”

In 1983 Murdo died suddenly at his home. The whole Island mourned his passing and that of his alter ego. Cailleach An Deacoin was more than a character – she was a legend!

© Pairc Historical Society

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 half of the last century.

The role of the redoubtable Ishbel Nicolson, Calbost, in pioneering the postal service in Lochs as it opened up new frontiers to reach more and more people stands out as a tribute to her resourcefulness, enterprise and ingenuity at a time when women were not generally expected or encouraged to play a prominent part in the day to day life of their communities.

Mail Deliveries in Pairc

Much more so than nowadays, women were left to tend to the family’s needs, rear children, manage livestock and perform some of the more burdensome and unpleasant tasks associated with the crofting way of life.

Ishbel, or Belle as she was known, was the daughter of Murdo Nicolson (Murchadh Dh’ol Thormoid), of Calbost, and she had gone over the Loch to Crossbost in the late eighteen sixties on her marriage to Kenneth MacKenzie (Coinneach Ledidh), 28 Crossbost, who had recently returned home from service with the Hudson Bay Company in Canada.  Over the Loch (null air a loch, or thall air a loch) were commonly used phrases of the day which have now fallen into disuse, signifying the close bond of friendship that existed between the inhabitants of the villages that existed on both sides of Loch Erisort and the harmonious social interchange that prevailed when only a short sea crossing separated them, compared with the long, winding stretch of road that served to isolate the communities from each other from the late nineteen twenties onwards.

The Post Office opened a branch in Stornoway in 1756, from where it administered a disbursement fund to finance the delivery and collection of mail in rural areas.  The first known postman in Lochs was Allan Ross who belonged to Crobeag and lived from 1803 to 1870.  Allan Ross was a schoolteacher at Keose before moving to Crossbost at the time of the disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843.

He was an outstanding lay preacher in his day and he later became an office-bearer in the Free Church at Crossbost.  It is, perhaps, safe to assume that the School was founded by the Free Church, as its ruins may still be seen close to where the Church stands to-day.

Allan Ross’s son, Roderick, qualified as a doctor of medicine and established a practice at Valtos, Lochs, and later in Borve, Lewis.  On Allan Ross’ death in 1870, Belle acquired the portable box that symbolised her new status as a servant of the Crown as well as the contract to collect and deliver mails in North Lochs at a starting salary of two shillings and sixpence a week – twelve and a half pence in to-day’s currency.

The horse drawn gig which carried the mails passed down the Stornoway-Harris road and Belle met up with it at the Creagan Ban junction at Leurbost on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.  She walked all the way round her extensive territory and carried the mails in a creel on her back.

In 1883, Belle established the first regular mail delivery service to South Lochs by running a ferry across Loch Erisort from Crossbost to Cromore.  For the first eight years, the service operated over the summer months only, beginning in May and ending in October.  Meanwhile, her salary had increased to four shillings (20 pence) a week with a seasonal increment of one shilling (5 pence) and a further six shillings (30 pence) for running the ferry service to Cromore.  She delivered the mails on foot as far as Lemreway.

Belle continued in her dual role as postwoman in North Lochs and ferry operator to Cromore until the late 1880s, when her brother-in-law, Donald MacKenzie (Domhnall Alasdair, 1835-1912), of 19 Crossbost, took over the ferry service in her place.

He remained in the post until 1905 when he was succeeded by Bell’s son, Ebenezer (Abie), who kept up the family link with the run until he was called to serve in the First World War in 1914.  It then passed out of the hands of the immediate MacKenzie family for the first time when Murdo MacDonald (Murchadh Dhomhnaill Mhurchaidh), 29 Crossbost, became the ferryman and he kept the deliveries going until 1920 when Donald MacArthur (Dan), who opened a sub Post Office in Cromore in October 1912, started operating the service from the Cromore side of the Loch.  According to tradition, the ferry service was always people-friendly and it became commonplace to come and go between the two communities “air a phost“.

Kenneth MacKenzie (Coinneach Ledidh), Belle’s husband, had set up a sub Post Office in Crossbost in 1874 and Belle and all their children became proficient in the work and skills required to run a busy post and telegraph office.  Kenneth Mackenzie’s family had been evicted from Orinsay in 1843, having been earlier removed from Buthinish in Pairc to make way for the improvements sought by the landowner which led to the creation of the Pairc Sheep Farm.  At one time, the Post Office house at 28 Crossbost was named “Buthinish” in honour of their ancestral home.

Belle MacKenzie, who lived from 1845 until 1914, retired from full-time service with the Post Office in 1905.  She had given 35 years of service and had seen the regalia of her Office transformed from a portable box and a creel to a fitted out, modern Post Office complete with the telegraphic system of communications installed in November 1886.

Following her retirement, her son, Kenneth, became sub Postmaster.  He did not enjoy the best of health and as his condition worsened, his brother, John, responded to the family’s request to return home from service with the Militia in Fort George to help them run the service.  When Kenneth died in 1909, at the age of 32, John was appointed sub-Postmaster in his place at the age of 23.

John (Seonaidh Choinnich Ledidh), like the rest of the family, had been taught by his mother and father how to conduct the differing aspects of the job and had been helping with deliveries since the age of 11.  For a time, John continued to pick up the mails from the Stornoway gig at the Creagan Ban, Leurbost, but this run was later taken over by Danaidh MacKenzie (Crossbost) until the service was made redundant by the introduction of motorised deliveries from Stornoway to Crossbost in 1923.

John married Barbara Alasdair Ruaidh, of 24 Crossbost, and had a family of six daughters, all of whom were taught the mechanics and intricacies of operating the wide range of services that a community post office provided for its customers.

After 47 years of service, John retired in 1956 but sadly he died in the first year of his retirement at the age of 71 in 1957.  He had been held in great esteem by successive generations and it was not surprising that one of his daughters, Katie Ann, succeeded him on his retirement, giving up her job in London to return home and maintain the family’s long connection with the postal service.  Another sister, Mary (Mairi Bhan) was a regular standby and had staffed the counter many times over the years until her marriage to Murdo Livingstone and subsequent departure from the family home.

Katie Ann’s period as sub Postmistress came to an end after three years in 1959 when she emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where she still lives.

The link with Calbost starting with her grandmother, was renewed when Katie Ann’s sister, Ishbel, was appointed sub Postmistress in 1959.  Ishbel had recently retired from a nursing career with H. M. Forces and had been decorated for meritorious service in several theatres of operations, including Trieste, Sicily and Korea.  Ishbel had married Donald MacLeod (Dan), formerly of 8 Calbost, and ran the Post Office in Crossbost until she died suddenly at work in November 1978.

Her death brought to an end a remarkable period of service by one family to the Post Office spanning a total of 108 years.  A span of years which saw many developments in the expansion of the postal services and even greater changes in the prosperity and lifestyle of the people it sought to serve.

Mrs. Muriel Morrison, 44 Crossbost, was appointed sub Postmistress in 1979 and the Post Office remains there to the present day.

In October 1912, Donald MacArthur (Dan) opened a sub post office in Cromore and started to operate the ferry service that brought the mails over from Crossbost on the other side of Loch Erisort.  He also undertook deliveries locally in Cromore until 1931.  The mails from the other villages in Southern Pairc were collected from Cromore by John MacLeod (Iain ‘an Choinnich) 3 Calbost, and he also delivered door to door throughout Marvig and Calbost.  There was a large, wooden box measuring 5 ft. by 3 ft. located at the end of his house which became known locally as the Post Office and which was used for storing postal material until it was collected by the authorised delivery men.  Donald Kennedy, 22 Lemreway, started collecting the mails for Gravir, Lemreway and Stiomreway from Calbost in 1912.  He was only 17 years of age at the time and made the entire journey on foot.  He dropped the Gravir mails at the sub Post Office at 19 Gravir and sorted out the remainder in a shed near croft number 20 Outend, Lemreway.  He then did the house to house deliveries in Lemreway.  After a year in the job, he left to join the Police Force in Glasgow and following training, he was assigned to patrol duties in the Gorbals district of the City.  He resigned from the Force at 12 months, returned to Lemreway and took up his duties where he left off the year before.  He was called up for service during the Great War in 1914, and spent 4 years with the Seaforth Highlanders before taking up his duties with the Post Office once again in 1918 when he was discharged at the end of the War.  Donald was now the proud owner of a horse and gig which made his journey less arduous as well as improving the efficiency of the postal service in the area.  Donald Kennedy continued in service until 1927 when the Post Office placed the contract for operating the service out to tender for the first time.  The contract was won by Malcolm Morrison (Calum Eachainn) 43 Gravir, and he also had a horse and gig on the run until the service was re-organised in October 1930, when the Royal Mail van deliveries started coming from Stornoway calling at Cromore, Marvig, Gravir and Lemreway.  The first driver on the run was Kenneth MacLean (Brand)

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 returned to Scotland she qualified as a mid-wife in 1923 and had enough savings put aside to enable her to enter The Cottage Nurses Training Home in Govan for training as a district nurse and mid-wife. She completed her training in 1928.  In those days nurses had to pay for their own training and support themselves during the three year course leading to qualification.

The Duchess of Montrose was President of the Training Home and a friendship developed between the two women which helped Isabella secure a number of private nursing posts. Nurse MacAskill’s niece, Morag Matheson has sent us a number of friendly, affectionate letters which the Duchess had written from Buchanan Castle, Drymen, Glasgow  to her aunt arranging for her to be picked up by her chauffeur driven carriage for various outings and visits. Indeed on one occasion she enclosed a ten shilling note as a gift to her.

A letter dated June 23rd. 1929 reads:-

“Dear Nurse MacAskill, I should be glad just to see you, as you were resting when I called yesterday afternoon. I shall be sending our Motor tomorrow morning to Killearn Station and on its way back passing Drymen Station I will tell the chauffeur to stop at Mrs MacKie’s door and call for you. Then if you come up here in the motor to see me you could afterwards walk back to Drymen Station. The Motor will call for you at 11.15.     Signed – The Duchess of Montrose”

Returning to her native village in the thirties, Isabella became widely known throughout the Isle of Lewis as Relief District Nurse. A thrifty lady she also sent money to her father which helped him to buy the croft at number nine, Gravir and build a new family home on the croft.

Morag remembers her aunt as a remarkable and determined woman of her time and says that the entire family treated her with awe and respect. She died in 1970

A large meeting of crofters, cottars and fishermen from the townships of Lemara, Gravir, Calbost, Marivig, and Cromore in the district of Park was held on the 15th inst. in the Cromore Schooolhouse. Captain Macfarlane, Marivig, was in the chair. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. J. Macdougall. The Chairman, in an able and clear speech, stated that it was a well-known fact to them all that the Lewis District Committee have unanimously been of the opinion that the best way of making roads in the Park district was to construct a main road from Cromore to Gravir, with the intention of ultimately extending it to Lemara, with branches to Marivig on the left and Garyvard on the right. It was also stated that the District Committee were fully under the impression that they had the unanimous consent of the people in favour of the above route, until they heard from Colonel Gore-Booth recently that a numerously-signed petition had been sent out from certain townships against the route proposed by the Committee, and in favour of another route along the coast from Cromore and passing through Marivig and Calbost to the lower end of Gravir, and recommended by Captain Andrews as the result of his visit to the place last harvest. It was explained to the meeting that the main object of their being called there that day was to find out whether the petitions referred to by Colonel Gore-Booth were genuine or not.

Thereafter, adds our correspondent, a very lively discussion took place over the petition question, and the whole meeting seemed to be quite indignant over the whole business, as there was not a single individual known among them who knew anything about the document referred to by Colonel Gore-Booth in his letter to the District Committee. The following resolutions were moved, seconded, and unanimously carried:

1. Moved by Mr. Murdo Macleod, Cromore, and seconded by Mr. Malcolm Campbell, Marivig – “That this meeting desire to take this opportunity of expressing their unabated confidence in the Lewis District Committee, and hope they will do everything in their power to get the roads constructed in the district of Park on the original route proposed by themselves and pegged out sometime ago by the district surveyor.”

2. Moved by Mr. D. Campbell, and seconded by Mr. Kenneth Nicolson, Calbost – “That this meeting protests against the route recommended by Captain Andrews in that it is entirely against the wishes of the people that preference should be given to the route proposed by him (Captain Andrews) to the one proposed by the District Committee and agreed upon by the people; that this meeting further protest against constructing footpaths, but will bind themselves to fulfil their original promise to the District Committee if they will get roads of twelve feet under gravel, so that they will be in a positiion to use carts in the district as people do in other parts of the island.”

3. Moved by Mr. Murdo Matheson, Gravir, and seconded by Mr. D. Maclennan, Marivig – “That this meeting wishes to make known that after having made inquiries it has failed to get anyone in its townships who could give them any information whatever about the petitions referred to by Colonel Gore-Booth in his letter to the District Committee, and that it is pleased to hear that the Committee wrote to the Congested Districts Board for a copy of the petition sent to them.”

4. Moved by Mr. Norman Nicolson, Lemara, and seconded by Mr. Norman Morison, Marivig – “That this district will not be satisfied until roads are constructed in the following places, viz.: – (1) A main road from Cromore to Gravir and extended to Lemara, with branches from Marivig and Garyvard; (2) a road from the Cromore Schoolhouse to Marivig, and from Calbost to Gravir along the coast.”

5. Moved by Mr. J. Smith, Cromore, and seconded by Mr. Roderick Mackenzie, Marivig – “That copies of the above resolutions be sent to Mr. MacIver, their County Councillor, to the Congested District Board, and to the local papers, and that their County Councillor should be asked to write Colonel Gore-Booth for a copy of the petition sent to him.”

After a vote of thanks to the Chairman, the meeting was closed.