May

24

Calum Nicolson (Calum Beag)

church / communications / fishing / people / trade / transport

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 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.

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Mar

29

The Royal Mail came by creel

communications / emigration / people / transport

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 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.

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Mar

28

Roads in Pairc,1900

communications / transport

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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Feb

28

MacRath Mòr in Caversta

church

Caversta’s claim to fame centres round the Rev John Macrae, minister of Lochs from 1857-1866.
MacRath Mòr, ‘Big Macrae’, who was a physical and spiritual giant was a household name in Scotland in the latter half of the nineteenth century , having ministered at Cross (1833), Knockbain (1839), Greenock (1849), Lochs (1857) and Carloway (1866) before retiring to Stornoway in 1871 where he preached regularly after his retirement.
Lochs (Crossbost) at that time was a congregation of around 5000 people. There were no Free Church buildings at Kinloch or Pairc in these days and with roads being few and far between in what was a large and widely dispersed area. It was with this in mind that the people of Snizort in Skye presented Macrath Mór with a yacht, The Wild Duck which was sailed to Lewis by his good friend Rev Roderick Macleod of Snizort.
This is where Caversta comes to the fore. Because of its central location ‘Gob Chabharstaigh’ became a meeting place and whenever Rev Macrae was to preach there, people came by boat from Kinloch, North Lochs, Cromore and Marvig while those from Gravir, Lemreway and Orinsay came on foot.

Portable pulpit

It is very likely that the ‘tent’ or portable pulpit, at present in the museum at Gravir was used there and there is part of a wall at number 3 in an area known as ‘Tobair na Tent‘.
Macrath Mór’s wife was Penelope Mackenzie, daughter of Captain Thomas Mackenzie, tacksman at Bayble. She is buried in Eilean Chalum Chille where the inscription on her gravestone is still legible but Macrae himself was buried at Greenock.

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Feb

21

Lemreway and the Puffin Hunt, 1958

crofting

by Donald Mackay, Kershader, in 1958-59
Lemreway was one of the villages affected by the Park clearances. It was resettled in 1861 when those who were removed from Brollum to Stiemreway were in that year removed to Lemreway on the outskirts of the Park sheep farm. None of those who had originally been evicted from Lemreway in 1841 returned to it in 1861 except one man, a Macaulay from Crossbost. There are no Macaulays in Lemreway today but certain Nicolsons are descendants of the Macaulay mentioned. The population of the village is 150 persons normally at home and of those there are only four males between the ages of 18 and 30 years.

Puffins on the Shiants

At one time the inhabitants of Lemreway and other neighbouring villages made visits to the Shiant Isles for puffins. The grounds of the Shiants is pockmarked with holes, the nesting place of the puffins, and the villagers used to bring home boatloads of dead birds which were valued for their feathers. They also enjoyed big pots of boiled puffins as a welcome change from their usual fish diet.
Puffins nesting on the Shiants

A day was chosen when there was a strong breeze blowing against the steep braes where the puffins nest and breed. The young men lay down on their backs on these slopes, holding up by the butts fishing rod lines of 9 or 10 foot in length. Holding them with both hands they whacked the puffins as they flew past them, quite low, in their hundreds. Whether the puffin was killed outright or merely stunned, it rolled down the steep slope to the shore or to the sea, and the rest of the crew were kept busy gathering bodies into the boat. The spreading of a herring net over the nesting ground was another method used. This custom has not been engaged in now for many a year.
There are a total of 46 houses (thatched 10, two rooms 2, three rooms 4, four rooms 23, five or more rooms 7.) One house has been built by government grant since 1918.  The school is attended by Lemreway and Orinsay children. There is a headmaster and one female assistant. The number on the roll is 35. In 1914 the number was 84. The West Coast Mission established a mission station in Lemreway shortly after 1900, and in 1938 the station was taken over by the Free Church, to which all the villagers belong.

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Jan

28

Donald Maciver at Lemreway School

children / education

The Lemreway school existing before 1881 was established by the Ladies Highland Association. The teacher was known as Murchadh Ban, a godly man from Uist. He was followed by Donald MacKay who afterwards went in for the ministry and served for many years as an evangelist in the Highlands and Islands. The public school opened in 1881.
The first headmaster was Donald MacIver (Domhnall Ruadh a Bhodaich Bhain), born in the parish of Uig in 1857. He left Lemreway in August, 1883 when he was appointed headmaster at Breasclete, where he remained for thirteen years. Following Breasclete he went to Bayble in 1896 and stayed there until his retirement in 1922. He is remembered today as the composer of the Gaelic song An Ataireachd Ard.
When Mr MacIver came to Lemreway he brought his sister, Margaret with him as housekeeper. His father, Am Bodach Ban, a retired teacher with the Gaelic School Society also joined them and became a leading member of the new Free Church at Gravir which opened on the first Tuesday of November 1882. Margaret later became the second wife of Kenneth MacMillan (Coinneach Dhonnachaidh). They were the parents of Angus MacMillan “The Hero of Buzancy” whose life story, written by his son the late Rev Kenneth MacMillan was published by the Historical Society in 1993.

June 7th. 1881

This school opened today for the first time by Donald MacIver, Certificated Teacher of the Third Class. The teacher after spending most of the day finding out the extent of the children’s attainments, find that the work in future will be very elementary.Of the 25 present only 12 know the alphabet properly, a few of these can read fairly number 2 and number 3 Royal Readers. Only 1 boy and 2 girls can write and the acquirements in arithmetic are equally backward.

February 20th. 1882

Opened school as usual but only 12 children came. Advised during the day by Dr. Ross to close school as Typhus seems to be raging in the district.

October 13th. 1882

Compulsory Officer was in school on Monday. He does nothing towards bettering the attendance of the school so that as far as I can see, he is, in his capacity quite useless. Everything assumes an air of indifference as far as school matters are concerned.

November 24th. 1882

I am sorry to understand that one of the pupils has died this week of the whooping cough. Had a visit on Thursday from Mrs Platt, Eishken Lodge, who was pleased to give two sewing prizes to the girls. This lady takes much interest in the industrial work of the school.

December 4th. 1882

“These certify that I am of the opinion that owing to an outbreak of measles at Lemreway, the Public School ought to be closed for a few weeks” Signed Rodk. Ross, Medical Officer for Lochs
“These certify that owing to the prevalence of whooping cough in the township of Lemreway (almost all the children being affected), I am of the opinion that the Public School in said village ought to be closed from this date till the epidemic subsides”
Signed Rodk. Ross, Medical Officer for Lochs
SCHOOL RE-OPENED 5th. January, 1883

May 16th. 1883

Of the 59 pupils on the roll a week or two ago, only 19 put in an appearance today. It is probable that not more than 2 or 3 of them will be present tomorrow.The work is over for the season; the weather is good and I can’t account for my school attendance.

June 15th. 1883

It should be remarked here that the sewing always depend on the quantity of material at sewing mistress’ disposal. Girls could never be got to take any stuff to school with them for sewing.

August 31st. 1883

School closes for 5 weeks holiday. Present teacher has bidden farewell to the scholars as he is about to leave to another school.

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