Of Baile & Clachan - including the example of Bragar in Lewis

This PDF document is a paper from the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland published in 1993 that contains plenty of food for thought on the organisation of island settlement that led to the development of crofting townships:
West Highland and Hebridean settlement prior to crofting and the Clearances

It is a scholarly, but very readable, account and the Abstract, Introduction and closing Overview give a clear synopsis of the competing claims together with the conclusions reached by the author, Robert Dodghson. I would, however, recommend reading the complete text for it is packed with detailed, illuminating information.

Addressing History Project

This project http://addressinghistory.blogs.edina.ac.uk/ looks extremely interesting and, although I haven't properly explored the project yet, thought I would give it a mention.

I have no doubt that it will prove very useful in following islanders who moved to the mainland as well as in researching those from the mainland who played a part in the history of the isles - I would love to be able to identify whereabouts in Edinburgh Mrs Frances Thomas had her Harris Tweed depot, for example!

Finlay J Macdonald Ancestral Chart Update

I have added several people to this chart and, in order to render it at a reasonable scale, have stopped at his great grandparents generation. As far as I can tell, and this is a cross-reference between the Croft History of Direcleit & Ceann Debig with the Censuses and information from Mackay genealogy , these are the correct families but I have not ventured further along the various branches. I should point-out that the John Mackay born in 1826 was the Church Beadle at Scarista. More on Finlay J Macdonald can be found in these entries.

Finlay J Macdonald's Ancestral Chart

Here is a chart showing what I believe to be the ancestry of Finlay J Macdonald.
Pieces relating to him can be seen here: http://direcleit.blogspot.com/search/label/Finlay%20J%20Macdonald
I cannot be absolutely certain regarding this chart but it represents the 'best-fit' from what little biographical information has been previously published regarding this particular son of Harris.

Gaelic Mapping

If you scroll down this link to 'Gaelic Mapping' you will find a wee tale about a place in Lewis:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/making_history_20080408.shtml
Happily, Iain mac an Tailleir appears to provide the true explanation!

Winter Harris

I just happened upon the site http://www.winterharris.com/default.asp and thought it might be of interest.

Borghasdal & Srannda

Continuing with placenames in the South-Eastern corner of Harris, Iain mac an Tailleir gives us:

Borrisdale (Harris), Borghasdal. "Fort valley", from Norse.

This place nestles between Port Eisgein in the Sound to its West and, over the hill, Borrisdale Bay which features the remains of the fort of Dun Stuaidh on the promontory headland that separates this bay from the neighbouring 'parent' inlet of Loch Roghadail.

A little to the north of Port Eisgein is Port Ungasto which has the remains of another fort, Dun Boraigeo, on its northern side. Another fort, Dun Innisgall is found further along the Sound in the Cairiminis complex of headlands and islands and, although I cannot claim to understand the interrelations between these sites, a pattern emerges of coastal fortifications protecting settlements from incursion via the sea. Srannda (Strond) sits along this coastal strip of fertile soil and is amply defended by the neighbouring forts and its name, according to our same source, is derived thus: Strond (Harris), Srannda. "Beach", from Norse.


Boraigeo is not itemised by Iain mac an Tailleir, but he does give us this place in Skye:
Boreraig (Skye), Boraraig."Fort bay", from Norse.
If these are the same name, then Dun Boraigeo becomes 'Fort Fort Bay' so it seems possible?
Innis Gall, meaning Islands of the Foreigner, was the name used for these islands for many years so how it came to be applied to the fort at Cairiminis is unclear, as is the derivation of Cairiminis itself!
Ungasto remaina a mystery, too, but Stuadh is Gaelic for 'Wave' which seems entirely appropriate if you look at the site on a map...

Note: The links give access to site records for the two dun, another is to be found at Rodel .

Port Eisgein

This small inlet in the Sound of Harris resembles the head of a pterodactyl swooping towards Borghasdal (Borrisdale). The name presumably has the same origin as the one that  Iain mac an Tailleir supplies for the place in Lochs, Lewis:

Eishken (Lewis), Éisgean. This Norse name may contain "ash tree".

In the censuses it tends to be written 'Esgein' but, as can be seen from this entry for the Lewis location the preferred spelling is Eisgein whilst the RCAHMS entry provides 'Isginn' as the preferred alternative.

The 'five roofed and thirteen unroofed buildings' that were surveyed in 1878, and which appear to me to correlate with the households of the 1851 Census for 'Port Esgein, Farm of Strond' can be seen in this image from the NLS.


View Larger Map

It would be lovely to know what use has been made over the centuries of this most South-Easterly haven in the Sound but looking at the old maps the settlement of Srannda (Strond) appears centralised upon the port suggesting that it may have had an importance that its small size might easily lead one to overlook today.


View Larger Map

West Coast Missionaries in Harris

There were about half-a-dozen missionaries on Harris at the time of each of the 1881-1901 censuses but I have extracted these four because each specified that he was a  'West Coast Missionary'.
I have yet to learn anything about the West Coast Mission (other than that there are very few other members to be found elsewhere in the census records).

1881
Donald Campbell, 40, Strond, b. Islay

1891
Malcolm McLeod, 37, 5 Marig, b. Lewis
Donald Matheson, 48, Strond, b. Skye

1901
Edward Mackay, 39, No 32 Scarp, b. Easedale, Argyleshire

It appears that the West Coast Mission came under the auspices of the Glasgow Reformatory Institution (at least, they published reports from it), a reference to which appears here: http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/161952/details/glasgow+211+duke+street+house+of+refuge+boys/ and which someone attempted to burn down in 1861 according to the National Archives of Scotland.

Labels

I have just discovered that if I click on a Label and save the URL, like this,
http://direcleit.blogspot.com/search/label/Photos
then I can use it to point folk at batches of relevant pieces.

Unfortunately, the Search function does not create a URL for each set of results so I cannot perform this same service with searches (which would have been extremely useful!), sorry...

Uncle Angus Martin

According to the Croft History, another distant uncle, Angus Martin (1810-1896) married Rachel Macaulay from Tolmachan and the couple lived in Tarbert. But we can do better than that!:

In 1841, Angus and his younger brother John (who has proved difficult to find in later records) were living with their parents, Neil Martin and Ann Macdonald at No 6 Direcleit. A decade later finds the 42 year-old Road Labourer lodging at the home of Rachel Campbell and her four children aged from 5 to 12. Rachel is described as being a Pauper, her Fisherman husband Alex Campbell presumably having perished.

However, when we next see them, in 1861, not only have Angus and Rachel married, producing two more offspring aged 10 (!) and 5, but Angus has put-away his road-making equipment and replaced it with the tools of tailoring. It seems entirely reasonable to believe that his brother-in-law, John the Tailor would have played a role in this conversion.

Intriguingly, a decade later the couple are living at the Tarbert Hotel and Rachel is described as a midwife, which role she continues to perform in 1881 when they were at West Tarbert 46, in 1891 from No. 9 West Tarbert and in 1901 when the widow is living at 'No. 20'.

I think there is something quite heartening in this little tale of a man (presumably lodging with a widow whilst engaged upon the road-making that took place as a means of alleviating unemployment at the time) who then takes-up a new skill and gives hope not only to himself but also to a poor widow and her family, she then giving many years of service to the community as a midwife.

Ellan Anaby

In the Croft History of Deiraclete & Kendebig, it states that the eldest child of Neil Martin & Ann Macdonald of No 6 Direcleit was John Martin (1801-1881) who married Catherine Macaulay from 1 Ardhasaig before the couple settled in Eileananabuich. I thought I'd have a look at this very distant uncle of mine and soon found myself surrounded by a flurry of dates and locations that have taken a little unravelling.

The nearest I could find to the location was in the 1861 census where a John and Catherine are shown living in the Ellan Anaby of this piece's title. A little manipulation led to me locating Eilean Anabuich, the Unripe Island, which, as Bill Lawson puts it, '...kept confusing the old census takers...' for, despite the name,  it is a village on mainland Harris on the shore of Loch Maraig looking towards Loch Seaforth. We are deep in the Forest of Harris where it is easy for one to lose sight of the wood for the trees, despite there not being any!

In 1861 John the Fisherman, Catherine and two of their four children had 55 neighbours in the other 10 households of Eilean Anbuich.  In 1841 there had been 57 people living in 'Miavag' and in 1851 some 81 folk were found in 'Meavag', these earlier references appearing to be to the nearby settlement of Maraig without apparently separately identifying its small unripe neighbour?

The final glimpse of John and Catherine, in 1871, fails to identify the specific location within Enumeration District 20 but it does include two grandchildren, probably the daughters of their son John and his wife Ann although the census neglects to include that detail too.

I don't know where 'my' Martins originated from but Uig in Lewis, Boreray off North Uist and Skye via Borve, Harris are apparently the three most likely candidates?

Update 30/04/15:
I have done a little more research and the widower John Martin died of old age on 15 November 1881 in Eileananbuich, Harris. His son, John, registered the death with 'his mark', an 'X'.

In the census of that year we see 84 year-old Retired Fisherman John Martin of 8 Isleanaby together with his 40 year-old son John, a fisherman, his daughter-in-law Marion and three grandchildren, Mary, Catherine and Donald.

Relatives of the 'Ayatollah'

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I am a fan of Finlay J Macdonald's trilogy 'Crowdie & Cream'. One of the pivotal, although already deseased, characters is that of the Minister, 'Ayatollah' Kerr.
I have already described John Kerr's family but here present a chart showing him and his relatives all descended from the two sons of his grandparents, John Kerr and Marion Macleod.
It is worth noting that by the time the 'Ayatollah' and his 'French' wife arrived back on his birth-isle, his uncle's family had established themselves in England and one doesn't get any impression from the books that the widowed Adele was aware of any descendants of her sisters-in-law who were living around her and who, in every likelihood, she was teaching in the school at Scarista alongside the schoolboy Finlay...

Note: Other references to Finlay J Macdonald can easily be found from the tags to the right, and the search feature should enable you to discover background pieces on Borve and the two brothers, should you so wish.

I should also point out that, although I cannot prove it, my firm belief is that all the Kerr folk of Harris were related, possibly descended from a few 'incomers' imported at the time of Captain Macleod's 'improvements', perhaps the last time that such 'improvements' were being undertaken with an understanding of, and in co-operation with, the indigenous inhabitants for another two centuries...