May

03

The Riot in Wick -1859

events / fishing / military

SABAID MOR WICK


The Wick riot which took place in August 1859 between Lewis fishermen and East coast fishermen was a ‘free for all’ that lasted a whole week.  Although perhaps relations between East Coast fishermen and Hebridean fishermen may not have been too good, it was a dispute between two lads over an apple, a lad from Wick and one from Lewis that started the “Sabaid Mor”
Police apprehended the 14 year old Lewis lad, Malcolm Macleod “Calum Alastair“, 2 Habost, Lochs who was helping in his father’s boat.  Skipper Alastair had moved from Balallan to Habost to take the place of a family that was evicted and moved away to Harris by the notorious factor Donald Munro.
Hundreds of people were engaged on each side in the fight and some Lewismen were arrested and taken to jail and this action by the police aggravated the situation. Domhnull Ruaridh Mackenzie, 10 Laxay,  assisted by his crew and others removed the mast from his boat and used it as a battering ram against the jail door and released the prisoners.  Almost every village in Lewis were represented in the riot and some of the men were stabbed and many hurt while some on both sides were given a ducking in the harbour.
An unusually strong man from Keose played a prominent part, Rob MacDhòmhnaill 12 Keose “Mac Domhnuill Bhan“, one of his roles was to provide ammunition for the rioters by breaking up barrels and supplying staves.  In the end the local authorities called in the military and Rev George Mackay of Tongue and peace was restored just before the end of the fishing season. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the strong man from Keose, Robert Macdonald and in order to evade the police he fled immediately first on foot,  but he had not gone far when he was overtaken by a carriage and pair. MacDonald’s signal for a lift was ignored and as a consequence he ran after the carriage and jumped in and ejected the driver and his passenger and left them by the roadside.  By the time the horses became exhausted he was near Poolewe, where he got the ferry “Mary Jane” to Lewis but the Lewis police were informed and Macdonald had to go into hiding with friends in Cromore until he thought the furore had died down.  Back home in Keose he soon joined the other youths who used to gather in the manse kitchen with the servants. One evening the Stornoway police turned up and arrested Rob and handcuffed him to one of the officers.  Near a Loch outside the village Rob said he was not going any further and asked the police to release him, when they refused he threatened to drag the officer to whom he was handcuffed  into the Loch.  After a brief struggle the officers felt they were no match for Rob and decided to release him to the delight of his friends, a large number of whom had gathered to give moral support to Rob. Knowing that he was a marked man he decided to leave via Tarbert to resume his seafaring career, this time in the Merchant Navy.  Alas a few years later he was lost in the Thames Estuary.

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Apr

04

Travels With My Tammy

at home / children / communications / tales / transport

From an article in Tional by Cathie Lockie
Three and a half years old and about to have my first remembered memory of our annual holiday on the Hebridean island of Lewis, isle of the heather and ‘land of my fathers’.
Three o’clock in the morning with myself seated on our cabin trunk, wearing my new white tammy resplendent with long white tassel – my pride and joy.  Excited.  We were a family of five, my parents, my sister, my brother and me. We awaited the arrival of the Glasgow taxi, which was to take us to Buchanan Street Railway Station, where the ‘Great adventure’ would begin…..
The 4.15 train for Mallaig arrived and with lots of other passengers and a proliferation of cases and more important things like fishing rods, we clambered aboard. Three to four hours later and half-asleep, we left the train to walk across to Mallaig harbour. There was the steamer which was to transport us north to Kyle of Lochalsh – a journey of some 2/3 hours. Warm and sunny weather and warm enough to be on deck, open up our flasks and sandwiches and have a late lunch.  Sail over and we were now on the pier at Kyle. We would wait with our luggage until the ‘Sheila’, the Stornoway steamer, would dock. Another hour would pass as cargo and luggage preceded the passengers and rucksacked tourists were allowed on board. The sea breeze had become a stiffening wind by this time, threatening to ‘de-tammy’ me. I have this memory of great anxiety about this.

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Feb

21

Garyvard Village Shops in the Early 1900's

shops / trade

In these days when village shops are all but gone it is hard to imagine that even a small village could have half a dozen shops in the early 1900’s

Buth Dhomhnull a Gharraidh (Donald Macleod) 1 Garyvard.

After the first world war Domhnull a Gharaidh set up a shoemaking business in an extension to Seoc a Gharraidh’s old black house on croft 1 next to where Roddy and Barabells house is sited today.  Donald had served his time as a shoemaker in Stornoway. This soon became a gathering place (taigh ceilidh) for the local youth as well as those not so young.  Card games were a common part of the evenings entertainment with ‘Catch the Ten’ being a favourite with matches as stakes.  Donald soon expanded and started to trade in other commodities and eventually built a shop to sell general stores.
In 1934 he became the Postman for the area serving the villages of Habost, Kershader, Garyvard and Caversta, a service which he undertook for 28 years until he retired in the early 60’s.
By the thirties demand for handmade  footwear had fallen off, but he still did shoe repairs up until the fifties. The shop was at its busiest in the forties when people came for their weekly rations and although the shop was only a 12 X 8 shed it included a butchery section. Environmental and Health & Safety standards were not an issue in those days with meat, flour, cheese, salt herring, kippers, boots, shoes, oilcake and fluke pills all being dispensed from this small shed and especially as it wasn’t unknown for the assistant to cast aside his manure creel to go and serve a customer in the shop.

Seada Thorcuill (Torcuill Macleod) 3 Garyvard

Torcuill Shiomon as he was known was a shoemaker who worked from a shed which still stands beside the steading at croft No 3. His business was confined to shoemaking mostly in the thirties. Torcuill himself died in 1944 at the age of 60.
The family had been visited by tragedy nine years earlier when two days before Christmas 1935 the three brothers, Alasdair, Calum and Calum Alasdair were out on the Caversta river which was covered with ice. Their dog slipped through a hole in the ice and whilst attempting to rescue the dog, Calum Alasdair went in under the ice and was tragically drowned aged 10 years. Alasdair tried to save his brother and was nearly drowned himself. He later received the Royal Humane Society Bravery Scroll. The scene of the tragedy is adjacent to the present cattle grid on the main road near Lake House.

Buth Mhurchaidh Buachaile, Murdo Macleod 3 Garyvard

Murchadh Buachaile who was Murdag Shiomon’s grandfather operated a shop from the family home around the turn of the century.  Murdag Shiomon (Murdina Macleod) revived the family tradition in the late twenties and continued till the early sixties. Murdag was a true entrepreneur of her time.  She bought and sold Harris Tweed, cattle and chickens as well as the normal provisions.  She even bought a van and operated a mini mobile shop travelling throughout the local villages.  Later on she branched into drapery, hardware and crockery and bought a larger van and she built a fairly large shop cum garage on the site of the present Council houses.

Torcuil Dhomhuill Thorcuil

Torcuil ran a shoemakers shop from a steading at 6 Garyvard before marrying and moving to Crossbost where he carried on his trade and also served as a postman.

An Buidhe

In earlier times another merchant used to go round the villages selling from his boat. An Buidhe lived on his boat with a deck referred to as a ‘smack’. Very little is known of his genealogy but the older generation remember him mooring his fishing smack in the bay and selling items of grocery.  Local people still remember his boxes of Cochranes tea which must have been the popular blend of the time.

Buth Dhonnachaidh an Mhoir, Duncan Mackay 3 Caversta.

Duncan’s shop was by the river on the Caversta side on the croft at number 3 where the site of the shop and a wall can still be identified. Duncan was the father of the councillor Donald John Mackay who served the area for a good number of years.

Buth Alasdair Rhuaraidh, Alasdair Mackinnon

The shop was attached to his house, Sea Haven on croft number 1.  Like most merchants he owned a number of boats over the years to bring goods from Stornoway.  One of those was the Try Again.

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Jan

16

Lady Habost

tales

A woman known locally as ‘Lady Habost’ or ‘A Bhan Tighearna‘ existed and lived in a fine house where croft 13 Habost is now. She was not an officially titled lady, but the grand-daughter of John Macleod (lain Mhic Thorcuill), tacksman of Hacklete in Bernera, Lewis.

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John Macleod had a son by the name of Donald who was known as ‘Donald of Lewis’. He had at least two sons and three daughters, John, Donald, Christianne, Mary and Barbara. It was Barbara who was known as Lady Habost. She married Angus ‘Ruadh’ Smith, Sheildinish, who was born in 1736, and he entered upon the tenancy of the joint tack of Habost and Cleitir in 1775.
Barbara’s brother, John Macleod of Colbecks, was a wealthy planter in Jamaica, and he left an annuity of £20 to Barbara, and each of his other two sisters. That was a considerable sum then and doubtless the local people felt that she was very well off, hence their reference to her as ‘Lady’, because she was affluent and possibly generous.
Local tradition associates Barbara ‘A Bhan Tighearna’ with a seafaring Captain, which might have been her brother who was the owner of ships that traded with overseas ports, even as distant as the Pacific. From time to time the Captain took his ship into Loch Erisort where he anchored and brought unusual things to Lady Habost.
Tradition also speaks of the fine house Lady Habost had, and that the roof was covered with red tiles which the Sea Captain brought to Habost from his overseas trading. The story about the red tiles seems to gain credibility, if not confirmation, from the fact that fragments of red tiles were unearthed at the site of the house in Habost, Lochs, and some of them are preserved by John M. Macleod of 15 Balallan, a distant relative of Lady Habost.
Local tradition also associates a Sea Captain with a subsequent tacksman at Habost, ‘Allan Mac a’ Mhinisteir’, thought to be Allan Morrison, possibly Allan’s brother who traded with distant overseas places. The inference is that there were at least two Sea Captains or more that frequented Loch Erisort.
The alleged activities of one of these Sea Captains associates him with white slavery, as it was said that one of these ships sailed away with a ship load of Island girls on the pretence of obtaining employment for them on the mainland, but none of them were ever heard about again, except that two Lewis soldiers serving in India happened to meet a girl there who identified herself as a girl from Laxay who was detained in the house of the Indian Potentate.
The tradition of white slavery could be true. W.C. Mackenzie in his book History of the Outer Hebrides, pp 477-78, describes how, in the 18th century, the Captains of emigrant ships searched systematically for passengers in every remote island, and kidnapping became a common occurrence. A vessel named ‘Philadelphia’ called at Stornoway, and the Master proceeded to kidnap boys off the beach and lock them up on board his ship without the consent of their parents or their employers.
In her widowhood, Lady Habost moved to Balallan where her brother, Donald Macleod, had been tacksman. In a list of tenants at Balallan in 1808, she is entered as ‘Lady Habost’, but the name is deleted and substituted by another name, which might indicate that she may have died about that time.

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