Lost villages of Pairc

I spent the afternoon mapping the villages of Pairc, which were cleared in 1821. Using an old map and modern satellite imagery, I could locate Brunigil, Stromos, Airigh Dhomhnuill Chaim, Rias, Scaladale Beag and Mor, Gilvicphaic, Ceannmore, Bagh Ciarach and Bagh Reimsabhaigh, Bunchorcabhig, Glenclaidh, Smosivig, Caolas an Eilean, Valamus and Valamus Beag, Ceann Chrionaig, Brollum, Hamascro, Mol Truisg, Molhagearraidh, Ailtenish, Buhanish, Gearraidh Righsaidh, Ceann Tigh Shealag, Gearraidh Reastail and Stiomrabhagh.

These foreign sounding names once meant home to small groups of people, scattered on the periphery of an area of mountainous moorland, whose highest peak, Beinn Mor, crests 1,700 feet. You can access the map on this link to find out which village each marker represents. Looking at the linked map, you can switch over to satellite view and zoom right into the marker. It will show a ruined house, homestead or even farmhouse. Kinloch Shell (Ceann Tigh Shealag) used to host an inn where the men from the district would come to drink. The ribbed appearance of the land is an indication of the runrig (or lazybed) system of agriculture. A lazybed is a ridge of ground generally used for growing potatoes and sometimes also for raising corn, the seed being laid on the surface and covered with earth dug out of trenches along both sides.

It is nearly 190 years ago since those villages were cleared, and its occupants packed off elsewhere. Not necessarily overseas, but certainly to elsewhere. To date, the evidence of their toil remains visible, even from as far away as outer space. The Eishken Estate, on which these tiny hamlets lie, is now the domain of the toffs, the shooting and fishing fraternity. In a few years, the hills will be desecrated by 33 wind turbines, each standing a third of the height of Beinn Mor, with attendant electricity transmission infrastructure.

Trying to read up on the history of the district pre-1821 yields practically nothing. It is heavily focused on the trials and tribulations of the Clan Mackenzie and the Earl of Seaforth. Nothing on the people who lived off the land. In a way, a distant echo came back from those days in the year 2005. The fifty folk living on the shores of Loch Seaforth objected to the Eishken Windfarm. But they were drowned out by the roar of big business.

I close with an image by BBC Islandblogger Molinginish showing Reimsabhagh.

The 36 villages of Eishken

The district of Eishken in southeast Lewis was cleared in 1820. It is a large area, with some large mountains on it (by Hebridean standards). Beinn Mhor rears up to more than 1,700 feet. Eishken had 36 townships in it at the start of the 19th century. I've managed to trace 27:


1 Bhalamos Beag
2 Bhalamos Mor
3 Caolas an Eilean
4 Bagh Ciarach
5 Ceannamhor
6 Scaladale Beag
7 Scaladale Mor
8 Stromas
9 Brinigil
10 Bagh Reimsabhaigh
11 Smosivig
12 Glean Claidh
13 Brollum
14 Ceann Chrionaig
15 Mol Truis
16 Mol Chadha Ghearraidh
17 Ailtenish
18 Budhanais
19 Ceann Loch Shealg
20 Eilean Iubhard
21 Isginn [Eishken]
22 Steimreway
23 Cuiriseal
24 Gearraidh Riasaidh
25 Bun Chorcabhig
26 Gilmhicphaic
27 Ceann Sifiord

This statue, entitled Exiles, was unveiled by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday, at Helmsdale on the east Sutherland coast. It shows a family, leaving their homes for a new life overseas. Helmsdale lies at the mouth of the Strath of Kildonan, one of many valleys in Sutherland cleared of their residents in the 19th century. The full background story can be read here.

Whilst I applaud the efforts of Mr Macleod (who initiated the project) to keep the memory of the Clearances alive, I somehow find the positive gloss being cast on this appalling episode in Scotland’s history very, very difficult to stomach. Particularly, bearing in mind Mr Salmond’s political hue, I would have expected to hear rather stronger language than “deplorable”.

Thousands of people were forced by means fair and foul to leave their homes - the practice of burning the thatch over people’s heads is well documented. The Isle of Skye, 35 miles south of here, has been the scene of some atrocious evictions. Late last year, the assertion was being made that the Isle of Lewis had suffered relatively lightly under the Clearances. Well, I couldn’t disagree more.

The below map shows the district of Eishken and the 27 villages which used to be there until 1820.

They were all cleared, mostly to other places within Lewis. But still a forcible eviction.
I agree that the people who were cleared out of northern Scotland did make a contribution in the areas where they settled. But I think it is a stinging indictment that their contribution was not appreciated in their homecountry, and I am waiting for the First Minister to say something about that too.

Park Raiders Memorial

The monument to the Park Raiders stands just west of Balallan, along the road to Tarbert. The text below is taken from the explanatory plaques in and below the monument.



This monument was erected in memory of the people of Lochs who challenged the authority of the state in order to focus public attention on the poverty and injustice they suffered under the oppression of heartless landlords who dispossessed their forebears from over thirty villages in Park.

Their inspiration was Donald MacRae, schoolmaster at Balallan, who committed his life to the Higland Land Law Reform movement and to the emancipation of the oppressed crofters and landless cottars.

Over a long period of time, Lady Matheson, the proprietrix of Lewis, ignored numerous pleas from landless families throughout Lochs for permission to return to some of the former villages in Park from which their forefathers had been evicted. Instead she converted the former 42,000 acre Park sheepfarm into a sporting deer forest in 1886.

On 22 November 1887, crofters and cottars from Lochs, having made their intentions public, marched into the Park deer forest, led by pipers and carrying flags. They confront Mrs Platt, the lessee, and her gamekeeper at Seaforth Head and continued past them into the deer forest.

The authorities reacted quickly, sending to Lewis a detachment of the Royal Scots and some Naval ships carrying marines. The raiders made their camp at Airidh Dhomhnaill Chaim by the shore of Loch Seaforth, where they assuaged their hunger on roasted and boiled venison.

Sheriff Fraser read the Riot Act at Ruadh Chleit, explaining its significance in Gaelic. By then the raiders felt that they had made their point and they began to disperse, having killed a large number of deer.

Six of the leaders of the raid were committed for trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. They were:

Donald MacRae, school master in Balallan
Roderick MacKenzie, 46 Balallan
Murdo MacDonald, 61 Balallan
John Matheson, 13 Gravir
Malcolm MacKenzie, 26 Crossbost
Donald MacMillan, 6 Crossbost

In January 1888, they were all acquitted of charges of mobbing, rioting and break the law of trespass.

The three entranes to this memorial Cairn symbolise the three communities that participated in the Deer Raid, Kinloch, North Lochs and Pairc.

The three projecting stones around the top of the memorial symbolise the three prominent events in the Pairc Deer Raid.

The eight points of the compass were taken from the homes of the six land raiders who were acquitted in the High Court in Edinburgh in 1888 as well as a stone from both the site of the reading of the Riot Act at RUADH CHLEIT and the raiders’ camp site at AIRIDH DHOMHNAILL CHAIM.

That so the race which was to come
Might well them learn and know
And sons unborn who should arise
Might to their sons them show
(Psalm 78)

Tragedy - South Lochs

In the 1960s, a boat left Stornoway bound for Marvig, 10 miles further south in the Lochs area of Lewis. It was carrying a large amount of timber. A young couple were going down to the village to build themselves a new home, and the young woman's uncle went along to steer the boat. Barely out of port, the engine failed and a storm blew up. It was some storm. They were unable to turn round, and gradually the boat was blown onto the reef of Sgeir Mhor, between Newton and Lower Sandwick. The uncle decided that he should jump overboard with a line, as this had been the way in which 75 people were saved on the Iolaire, in 1919. The other passengers thought the better of following him. Screams for help from the terrified woman could be heard in houses in Lower Sandwick. Finally, the lifeboat managed to come in and saved the couple by breecher's buoy.

The storm blew itself out, and the next morning the sea blinked innocently in the sunlight. The boat was sitting high and dry on the Sgeir Mhor. The body of the uncle was found on the shingle of the beach, in amongst all the timber. In the afternoon, people could walk out to the vessel as it sat on the reef. It was unbelievable that just 12 hours before a raging storm had made it impossible for any but the lifeboat to come near.

Forty years before, people from Marvig were involved in another tragedy, this time to the south of their village. Again, a young couple were taking the contents of their house and some timber around to Steimreway. This village was vacated in the Clearances of the 1830s, but they wanted to rebuild the houses. It is located along the coast, about 3 miles west of Lemreway, on the shore of Loch Shell. The boat was caught in a storm and foundered, drowning all on board. Although Steimreway was reoccupied between 1921 and 1945, this tragedy did little to inspire confidence. When central government refused to provide amenities like a school and a road, the villagers abandoned Steimreway for a final time at the end of the Second World War. You can still visit the site of the settlement by walking 2 miles across rough moorland from Orinsay. It is a very pretty location, but my attempts to reach it foundered in bad weather.

The story of Steimreway is told in an article on the Lochs Community website.

Deserted villages

In Lewis, there are at least 30 of them, most of those thirty being in the district of Eishken. Since the early 19th century, this large chunk of the island has lain derelict. It was the old story that sheep made more money than people. Incidentally, during the Napoleonic wars, the landowners were more than happy to have people on their land. They could nicely rake in all the kelp, which was the base material for gunpowder in those days. Because of the blockade of Britain by Napoleon's fleet, imports of guano (bird droppings) were halted. An alternative source of nitrate had to be found, and burning kelp was found to be yielding nice quantities of potassium nitrate. But when the war was over, and ships were able to bring in guano again, there was no more need for kelp in the huge quantities that the war required. As stated above, sheep were found to be more profitable than the dirt poor cottars, so the lairds employed all sort of tactics, fair, foul and anything in between, to shift the people off their land. Most readers will have heard the stories of the ship in the bay, a party of men sent ashore to torch the houses and the residents told to board the ship. Others were sent packing to another part of the island.
Lewis has seen quite a lot of these tactics. From the west of the island come stories of people from Uig being shunted across Loch Roag to Carloway; Gearrannan residents moved to Dalmore, then to Dalbeg, then to Shawbost. And further north. One man who worked for the Mathesons in their day was rewarded for his loyalty by having his croft extended at the cost of a neighbour's, who was in arrears in rent. A chunk of the neighbour's croft was taken away and awarded to the loyal worker. Who subsequently couldn't show his face in the village again.

Returning to the southeast, Eishken was cleared of its 30 villages in the 1820s. I have tried to locate them, but the only decent 19th century map in Stornoway library is post-clearance and shows no traces of the old settlements. When people were moved to other areas in the island, this led to a degree of 'congestion'. There was not sufficient land to go round. In the history of the Highlands and Islands, the year 1886 is a red-letter year. This was the year when the Crofters' act came into force, which awarded security of tenure to crofters, and made it impossible for landowners to summarily evict people from their land. The following few years were very important in Lewis, as they were punctuated by civil disobedience if not uprisings. One such event focused on Eishken, and has become known as the Parc Raids. In 1887, a group of men, led by a Balallan schoolteacher, committed a mass trespass on the Eishken estate and helped themselves to deer. As they sat consuming the venison, the men were ordered off the land, which they refused to do. The sherriff had to come down and read the men the riot act. As there was no intention to stay for any length of time, the park raiders left Kinloch Shell and were arrested. They had made their point. A monument to the raid stands by the Stornoway to Tarbert road, at the junction of the 7 mile road to Eishken.

To this day, Eishken stands empty. It is the playground of the rich for shooting deer. There are plans, as I mentioned in an earlier post, to build a 133-turbine windfarm on the estate. It would mean the desecration of a magnificent mountain landscape, not just of Eishken itself (with Beinn Mhor up to 1900 ft), but also of the adjacent Harris hills. Instead of planting turbines, why not use that piece of legislation I heard about which requires landowners to allow people to resettle on derelict and unused land? Wouldn't it be nice if places like those listed below were repopulated?

The number after each name represents the Ordnance Survey national grid reference, which should be prefixed with the letters NB to obtain the full reference. There were reputedly 36 villages, 27 of which I have the names. The names of another 9 are unknown to me, the location of several known ones eludes me as yet. Further info welcome. Map reproduced with kind permission of HM Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Apologies for its quality.


1 Bhalamos Beag - 291010
2 Bhalamos Mor - 298016
3 Caolas an Eilean -
4 Bagh Ciarach - 251021
5 Ceannamhor - 223067
6 Scaladale Beag - 220100
7 Scaladale Mor - 218120
8 Stromas
9 Brinigil - 277159
10 Bagh Reimsabhaigh - 258025
11 Smosivig - 273049
12 Glean Claidh - 253066
13 Brollum - 322031
14 Ceann Chrionaig - 311055
15 Mol Truis - 359056
16 Mol Chadha Ghearraidh - 367066
17 Ailtenish - 368088
18 Budhanais - 332100
19 Ceann Loch Shealg - 294107
20 Eilean Iubhard - 380100
21 Isginn [Eishken] - 326119
22 Steimreway - 346116
23 Cuiriseal
24 Gearraidh Riasaidh
25 Bun Chorcabhig - 263033
26 Gilmhicphaic - 217083
27 Ceann Sifiord - 295163