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All Village Histories
A Look Back on Ahmore (part 2)
With Mrs Chirsty MacLean (daughter of Neil son of Alex son of William) It was working on the land that was the livelihood of the crofters in Ahmore. The children would be helping, looking after the animals, milking, clearing the byre, going out to the back of the hill looking for the animals in the…
A Look Back on Ahmore (part 1)
With Mrs Chirsty MacLean (daughter of Neil son of Alex son of William) Ahmore was a part of the tack of Orinsay. A lot of people had it at first, but when it was made a part of the tack, many of the people were sent away, and the place went under sheep. Ahmore was…
A Look Back on Grimshader (part 2)
with Torquil MacRae Fishing When I was older we would go fishing for haddock with the little boat. My uncle had a big boat, with four oars in her, and we would go out with four at the oars and another steering. I was so young then – only about fourteen. There was an old…
A Look Back on Grimshader (part 1)
with Torquil MacRae Early Day’s I began my life on this very croft. I was born on 21st July 1923, and there was no minister here at that time. It was in 1924 that Malcolm MacIver came, and it was Rose who was here in 1923, so I was more than a year old before…
A Look Back on Tolsta (part 3)
with Jessie MacLeod (widow of Roderick MacIver) Our family My husband was from Tolastadh. He was sailing with the New Zealand Shipping Company. He was away for long trips. Our daughter was born in March and her father didn’t see her again until November. I’m sorry to say that soon after he left, he was…
A Look Back on Tolsta (part 2)
with Jessie MacLeod (widow of Roderick MacIver) Fishing The people here had their own boats, going out with small-lines, but they had boats in Stornoway too. My father had a boat, the Dove and one called Clan MacLeod, and there used to be boys from Point working as cooks on them – galley-boys – Angus…
A Look Back on Tolsta (part 1)
with Jessie MacLeod (widow of Roderick MacIver) Schooldays We had two teachers – Mary Jane Smith from Holm and Maggie Mary MacLeod. The headmaster was from Uig, Mr MacLean. We had a teacher from Point too – she was married to Allan Cameron. They didn’t speak Gaelic to us, and we had no English going…
A Look Back on Manish (part 3)
with Donald MacDonald (Domhnall Shàm), Horgabost Leaving Manish We came to the machair on the 28th of May 1937. I remember it as though it were only yesterday. It was two years before that that the machair was broken up into crofts. There were 8 crofts in Horgabost and 20 in Seilebost. There were so…
A Look Back on Manish (part 2)
with Donald MacDonald (Domhnall Shàm), Horgabost Houses In my grandfather’s day, the cattle were in the house along with them; my great-grandmother’s sister lived beside our own house, and she had the fire in the middle of the floor. When she stoked the fire in the morning on a still day, you had to go…
A Look Back on Manish (part 1)
with Donald MacDonald (Domhnall Shàm), Horgabost Schooldays The longest distance I was ever away from home when I was at school was on the day of the King’s Coronation on the 12th of May 1937. The Manish schoolchildren were taken to Scarista sands, and that was the first sands I had ever seen! To me…
A Look Back on Cuidinish (part 3)
with Neil MacCuish, Horgabost Fair-haired Duncan the Tailor Duncan Morrison, he was known as Donnchadh Bàn Tàillear – Fair-haired Duncan the tailor – there was himself and his wife, and they would read the Bible before going to bed. Sometimes the paraffin in the lamp ran out, and as the light went down, the old…
A Look Back on Cuidinish (part 2)
with Neil MacCuish, Horgabost House weddings When you came in to the far end of the Cuidinish road there was a branch going up to the MacLennans’. That was where the Poll Garbhadh people came from, down at the head of the sea. When you turned left, there was a big house – a big…
A Look Back on Cuidinish (part 1)
with Neil MacCuish, Horgabost The Light at Calum MacLeod’s House Calum MacLeod’s house was far from the main road at Cnoc Esgan, and, the time we were seeing the light there, there was just a track down through the village. It was in 1939 that they got the footpath through. I was working on Calum’s…