Saturday 02/09/06

After the lashing winds and heavy rain overnight, Saturday dawns fairly bright. I join the German couple for breakfast. Their English is not very strong, but today they go over to Bernera and Uig. Mrs B goes to an 11.30 session at the Book Festival re. Village Bards. A Bard has to excell in 33 different categories, apparently. At 1pm, I go along to listen to David Craig, an excellent writer on the Highland Clearances. We start late, due to the very late finish to the previous session. Mr Craig tells some horror stories of the Clearances, the events in the 18th and 19th century in western and northern Scotland where thousands were forcibly evicted from home and land. They were shunted off somewhere else in Scotland or out to the Americas or Australia and New Zealand. The stories are heart rending. David's research took him right across Scotland, and it was very hard to pull the stories out of people. It's comparable to the trauma suffered through the Iolaire Disaster here in Lewis, which is not openly discussed.

A family from Kildonan, northwest of Helmsdale on the Sutherland coast, was kicked out and were ordered to march to the harbour at Portcawl. They brought their pet sheep with them. When they arrived at Portcawl, the landowner's agent (the factor) set his dog on the sheep, tearing it to pieces.

A family was expelled from Boreraig, Skye, and had to walk east along the shores of Loch Eishort, with their cattle in tow. At the end of the day, they camped out at Drumfearn, 5 miles away. Their tears were more prodigious than the milk, yielded by the cows, which were exhausted.

A family had been given notice to quit from their home at Sollas, North Uist. They had been deliberating whether to take the loom with them, or just to cut loose the tweed from it and take at least that along. When the factor turned up, he set fire to the roof thatch. This was so dry, that the sparks from the burning fell inside the loomshed and set fire to tweed and loom. Both were destroyed.

I got David to sign my copy of his book On the Crofters' Trail. I also bought Eilean Fraoich [Heather Isle] which contains a large number of Lewis songs and melodies.

After this session, I did some shopping in Somerfields. Mrs B went outat 4 pm to listen to a session on a famous columnist, Aimisear Eachainn (Hector the Weather), who used to write in the regional paper The West Highland Free Press. Supper consists of a Thai stirfry with rice, followed by a cherry pie with custard. Lottery yields nothing. It starts to rain after nightfall.