Arnish Lighthouse

Went to Ness on Tuesday afternoon, with the dual purpose of visiting the Heritage Centre in Habost (where the Comunn Eachdraidh has its base) and checking the cemetery, which is about a mile down the road towards the sea.

The Heritage Centre is open for only a few hours a day in winter, so was lucky to have timed for an afternoon call. Started off by asking for information from the Comunn Eachdraidh, who were happy to help where possible. As is the case with all the historical societies in Lewis, they are run by volunteers and therefore have hardly time and/or resources to work through queries - I came with a list of about 30. I encountered the same problems in Shawbost, with the West Side CE in a lovely new building by the bridge, but nobody to man it for any length of time. CE Uig is by far the most active, with a volunteer doing a great one-person job on the website and social networking presences. However, upon request, all the historical societies in the island have been more than pleased to help.

The exhibition in the Ness Heritage Centre is worthy of a visit, with an interesting section on the now defunct Decca Station near Eoropie. There were some lovely items on display, but I dread to think what the environmental conditions in the exhibition space must do to the exhibits. A hygrometer was stuck firmly at 90%, and a thermometer would have struggled to reach much above 7C - the same temperature as could be found outside. Better go there on a sunny spring or summer’s day.

I cannot show pictures of the exhibition, as there was a notice asking not to take photographs.

I had visited the Habost Cemetery before, but needed to revisit in order to register the private, family gravestones that refer to casualties of war. I found about 25. I’ll close my report with a few outside pics. It was perishing cold on Tuesday.

The mainland hills, seen from the Habost machair

Looking south, down the coast towards Dell

Don't think these are very welcome

Habost village

I attended a meeting at the Uig Community Centre in Erista this afternoon. Two academics from Edinburgh were explaining their new theories on an alternative location for the initial find of the Lewis Chessmen, Mealista. There was also information on the 93 pieces that currently reside in the British Museum in London. A number of them will come to Scotland in 2010 and to Lewis in 2011. Whether they will actually come back to Ardroil or nearby Erista (site of the Uig Museum) is not at all certain.

Lewis chessman replica at Ardroil

A very strange development in the continuing saga of the proposed Town Hall refurbishments. Now the Council’s own planning department have spoken out against the proposals, something that I find incredibly strange - and I use the word incredibly deliberately. I am not that familiar with planning procedures, but it would appear that one department within the Comhairle is not talking to another. If such a major project is put forward, you’d imagine that all departments would have talked it through with each other before it was submitted for scrutiny by the public.

Yes, I am in favour of the Town Hall refurbishment scheme. If only because it would have brought the building into line with legal requirements for disabled access, and taken it into more extensive use. I do not fault people for wishing to oppose as I believe they do so for genuine reasons.

But for the Comhairle’s own planning department to voice its opposition so late in the day, and in wordings that are quite frankly redolent of the opponents’ line of argument reduces the whole planning process to a farce and the Comhairle to the level of a banana republic.

The unseemly squabble over the St Kilda Centre continues, with the supporters of the Cleitreabhal site in North Uist threatening to open their own centre. Meanwhile, the Ionad Hiort working group in Uig has started work towards making the centre at Mangurstadh a reality. A website is to be set up shortly, and I refer to the Comunn Eachdraidh Uige for further updates and details.

Meanwhile, I would also like to recommend for contemplation this letter by a South Uist resident. I agree with each and every point raised.

The bell and plate from the Iolaire in Museum nan Eilean

I was very pleased indeed to note that the BBC has included the bell and plate from HMY Iolaire in its feature “A History of the World - 100 objects“. This is a large project, in which several objects from periods of the last 10,000 years feature to tell the history of the world.

As I have often mentioned on this blog over the past four years, the admiralty ship “Iolaire” had been sent to Kyle of Lochalsh in the last days of 1918 to take sailors and other servicemen home to the Isle of Lewis. The ship foundered on the rocks of the Beasts of Holm, only a few dozen yards from shore. More than 200 perished, only 75 survived. It is one of the key moments in this island’s 20th century history, and in fact of maritime history in that century. As the page on the BBC website rightly points out, the losses from the sinking of the Iolaire were second only to the Titanic as far as British registered vessels were concerned, and second only to the number lost off the Norge. This Scandinavian emigrant ship ran aground at Rockall in 1904, with the loss of about 700.

The sinking of the Iolaire is too little known, and I wholeheartedly endorse the inclusion of this event in this particular project. Read its page on the BBC webpage here.

The image at the top of this post is my own.

11 January 2005 is one of those days that everybody who was in the Outer Hebrides at the time will not forget. A deep Atlantic depression moved past our islands, bringing with it winds of force 12 on the Beaufort scale, with gusts in excess of 130 mph. At the time, I was staying in Kershader, 12 miles south of Stornoway as the crow flies - more like 22 miles by road. At 6.22pm, the power went off, not to go back on again for 48 hours. The wind was already howling around the building. Blue flashing lights penetrated the darkness from across Loch Erisort - police cars were stopping traffic on the Stornoway to Tarbert road after a lorry driver reported a sheep flying past his windscreen. The driver of the South Lochs bus that night was mightily relieved to make it home in one piece, he told me later. Trees were downed, roofs taken off, vehicles crushed under trees - and hundreds of them toppled in the Castle Grounds in Stornoway. High tides lapped at the doors of people on Cromwell Street and Bayhead in the town. Boats were torn off their moorings and smashed into the ferry terminal. Slates became like missiles, and pedestrians blown off their feet. Some who sought refuge were denied entry; others were taken inside.

The next morning dawned breezy and bright. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief. That was a bad one, but it’s only damage. By 9.20 am however, reports start to emerge from the Southern Isles. Five people are missing in South Uist, after they fled their home the previous evening at around 7pm. Rising tides had started to approach their home, and pebbles were hurled against walls and windows. They enter two cars and drive from their home at Eochdar towards the causeway, linking South Uist and Benbecula. A fatal decision. That road parallels the stretch of sea that separates the two islands. The southeasterly storm, combined with a springtide from the northwest pushed the waters of Loch Bi up; but on account of the floodtide they could not drain into the sea. The loch flooded a small causeway, sweeping the cars into the water. By morning, the five missing people are found dead. They include a mother and father with two young children and a grandfather.

A notice in the Stornoway Gazette of last week commemorated their loss. This entry is in their memory too.

On Saturday (12th), about 100 people demonstrated outside Stornoway Town Hall against the proposed changes to the building’s interior. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, who I have freely criticised on other issues in the past, has finally spoken out to clarify what the refurbishments plans will and will not entail.

• A removable stage, to be deployed when needed for performances
• Sales of work and craft fairs can still be held, benefiting from (in fact) an increased floor space area
• The community functionality will continue
• Office space is already present in the building, the Council Service Point (off Point Street), which was very much in demand at the time of its opening

The overall aim is to increase usage of the building.

An on-line facility is to be provided to allow people virtual access and a walk through facility, to see what the proposals would actually look like.

More information on Hebrides News.

I’ve had a good look at the refurbishment plans for Stornoway Town Hall, and have taken note of the opposition to the plans. I can understand that people don’t like change - it’s not always for the best. However, I have to say that I find the opposition to the refurbishment plans, with all due respect, ill informed. As I understand it, the current stage will be replaced by an exhibition area. Access to the groundfloor of the Town Hall is to be given from the square to the west of the Town Hall (if anyone can remind me of the name of that square, which has a fountain in a rock in it, I’d be much obliged). Obviously, the entrance from Cromwell Street will be kept. The floorspace will be retained. Upstairs, the seating is to be removed, but the balustrade will be retained and turned into a functional area. Disabled access lifts are to be installed (high time). Upstairs, offices will actually be merged into more functional areas.

Personally, I am not opposed to the refurbishment plans. I understand and respect the wish of people to retain the stage in the Town Hall, which has been the focal point for many of the island’s key historic moments. However, its current functionality is reduced from what it was 5 years ago. The An Lanntair cultural centre has taken over as the main venue for cultural events, and the Town Hall is being used on only a handful of occasions each year. I cannot remember whether a retractable stage is on the cards to take the place of the current fixed one (maybe wishful thinking).

I realise that, with 1200 people signed up to the Facebook group, opposing the refurbishment, including well-known names like Phil Cunningham, I’m going to be in the firing line. But I’m allowed my opinion, and have not shied away from controversy before.

Anyone wishing to register their opinion (for or against) can do so on the Council’s website. There is no timelimit on objections.

HMS Rawalpindi

Today is the day in 1939 that HMS Rawalpindi was sunk by Nazi German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The brief battle has gone down in naval history as an incredible display of bravery on the part of the Rawalpindi’s crew. After trying to hide themselves from the Germans in the North Atlantic fog south of Iceland, they were ordered to surrender by the Scharnhorst. In response, the captain of the Rawalpindi said: never. And he fired a shell at the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau to underline his point. Bear in mind that the Rawalpindi was a converted passenger liner, kitted out with a gun and some armour plating. The Scharnhorst had to reply in kind, and sank the Rawalpindi. The bravery was noted by the German admiralty (sic!). All but 37 of the Rawalpindi’s crew were lost in the sinking. Their sacrifice was not in vain; before battle commenced, the Rawalpindi had been able to signal the position of the German battlecruisers to back to base on the Clyde, and an armada of British warships was heading north to intercept. More on this story here.

[Line below edited in response to comment #5]
Of those lost on the Rawalpindi 8 men were from Lewis, namely:

Seaman COLIN MACKAY, 31 South Bragar, aged 29
Local memorial: West Side, Bragar

Leading Seaman MURDO MACKAY, 53 Back, aged 33
Mac Choinnich Dhomhnuill Alais ‘c Dhonnachaidh
Son of Kenneth and Henrietta MacKay, of Back, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Local memorial: Back

Seaman DONALD SMITH JNR, 52 North Tolsta, aged 19
Domhnall a’Bhard
Son of Angus and Margaret Smith, of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Local memorial: North Tolsta

Seaman DONALD MACARTHUR, 10 Cromore, aged 20
Dollan Mhurchaidh Alasdair
Local memorial: Pairc, Kershader

Seaman JOHN MACKENZIE, 21 Swordale, aged 26
Son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald MacKenzie, of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Local memorial: Point, Garrabost

Seaman NORMAN MACLEOD, 25 Swordale, aged 31
Son of Donald and Mary Macleod, of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Local memorial: Point, Garrabost

Seaman JOHN MURDO NICOLSON, 39 Lower Bayble (and 3 Marybank, Stornoway), aged 36
Son of John and Christina Nicholson, of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis; husband of Williamina Nicolson, of Stornoway.
Local memorial: Point, Garrabost

Petty Officer WILLIAM MACLEOD, 14 Sheshader (and Marybank, Stornoway)
Local memorial: Point, Garrabost

These names are mentioned on the Plymouth Naval Memorial (panel 35); a picture can be viewed on this link. They are all cited in the third column.

Posting links to sites related to the First and Second World Wars and the islands of the Outer Hebrides. Emphasis is on Lewis, part of it my own research, with help from island historical societies.

http://facesmemorial.blogspot.com/
Faces from the Lewis War Memorial, lists the Fallen from the Isle of Lewis for the First World War; includes portrait photographs.

http://iolaire1919.blogspot.com/
The Iolaire Disaster of 1 January 1919. Lists the names of those that lost their lives in that shipwreck, includes portrait photographs and pictures of gravestones in island graveyards.

http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/englishcamp/lewis/index.html
HMS Timbertown, the story of the internment camp at Groningen, Holland, where more than 100 island sailors were interned for the duration of WW1.

http://lewiswwar2.blogspot.com/
Lists the Fallen from the Isle of Lewis for the Second World War

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/index.html
The 1914-1919 Roll of Honour for the Isle of Lewis

http://harrismemorial.blogspot.com/
Lists the Fallen from the Isle of Harris for the 1st and 2nd World War

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/uist-ww1.htm
Roll of Honour for the First World War for Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/uist-ww2.htm
Roll of Honour for the Second World War for Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-forum-76.html
Western Isles War Memorials: pictures and listings of the war memorials in the Outer Hebrides

http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/viewforum.php?f=19&mforum=scottishwargraves
Western Isles War Graves: pictures and information of those lost in the 1st and 2nd World War who are buried in the Outer Hebrides, or referred to on family gravestones in island graveyards