Roads in Pairc,1900

A report of a meeting about roads in the Pairc district, held 15 January 1900. From the Stornoway Gazette, 27 January 1900.
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.

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Garyvard Village Shops in the Early 1900's

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.

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 the late 17th and early 18th Century. Their son, Donald, moved over the Loch to Keose on his marriage to Ann MacDonald thereby establishing the family’s association with the croft at 5 Keose that was to remain their home until Charles’ father, Murdo, moved to Ropework Cottage, Stornoway, after his marriage to Chrissie MacKenzie. Chrissie was a descendant of Charles MacKenzie (1776-1845), of Leurbost, who had moved to 7 Keose around 1819. On the paternal side, his family had links to the Martins of Ensay, Harris, and the MacDonalds of Ranish.
Charlie’s father had left Keose to go and work on the sheep farming stations of Patagonia in South America. Bruce Chatwin’s book, In Patagonia, describes the setting up of the sheep farms in 1877 when Henry Reynard, an English trader in Punta Arenas, ferried a flock from the Falkland Islands and set it to graze on Elizabeth Island in the Straits of Magellan. It multiplied prodigiously and other merchants took the hint. The leading entrepreneurs were a ruthless Asturian, Jose Menendez, and his amiable Jewish son-in-law, Moritz Braun. The two were rivals at first, but later combined to assemble an empire of estancias, coal mines, freezers, department stores, merchant ships and a salvage department that was reputedly closer to piracy than salvage. Menendez died in 1918, leaving a proportion of his millions to King Alphonso XIII of Spain and was buried at Punta Arenas. The Braun and Menendez families continued to dominate the territory through their Company, La Anonima. They imported stud flocks from New Zealand, shepherds and their dogs from the Western Isles and farm managers from the British Army who stamped the smartness of the parade ground over the entire operation and turned the Province of Santa Cruz into a Spanish speaking outpost of the British Empire.
Murdo MacLeod spent several years in Patagonia in the employment of a family named Menendez. They were kindly and generous sheep farmers and Murdo enjoyed his time working with them so much so that when his son, Charles, was born in 1915, he was given the second name Menendez in tribute to Murdo’s affection for the family.
Charlie’s mother, Chrissie MacKenzie, was the daughter of Charles MacKenzie (born1853) and Kirsty MacKay whose forebears lived at 4 Achmore. On the maternal side, she was related to the MacAulays of Uig.

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Memories of Caversta


Reminiscences of Ruaraidh Rob Mackinnon, 2 Garyvard, who was born in Caversta in 1909. Translated by Elizabeth MacGowan from the articles in Tional in 1992/93
It was from Cluthar in Harris that the Mackinnons on my father’s side came. Domhnull Mhaoil Domhnaich came to work in Crobeg. At that time, Caversta, Torostay, and Orinsay belonged to Crobeg. When crofts were allocated in Caversta, one of Domhnull’s sons, Ruairidh (my grandfather) got No 4.
I remember an old ruin in Caversta on croft 2 that belonged to my grandmother’s family. It is known as “Tobhtag Nic Ailean”. Anna Macsween was her correct name. She also worked in Crobeg. She originally came from Harris. I remember the ruin still with a roof on it. Many an hour myself, Nobles and Louis Fhearchair spent there. It was there that the local bull was kept. Many a night I tumbled over him making my way home in the dark. If they had not brought him in, he would lie on the road that was going down to our house.
Anna Macsween was a poor woman. I remember my father saying that when the men were landing their catch from fishing, that her share would be allocated before the share of the crew. There was another lady in Caversta called Raonaid, but she must have been there long before Anna, as her ruin had fallen down in my time.
There was another man in Caversta called Fearchair. He had a big house. It was built during the time of the fishing. It was Ruairidh Cubar from Keose that built it. They had collected all the stones for it before they left for the fishing, and the house was built by the time they came back. He got paid around four pounds for building it. I have never seen such beautiful stonework; he was a wonderful stonemason. He was well respected in those days. The house was about thirty feet long, and had a stair in it as well. Fearchair had a big family of ten, and some of them are still living.

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