Llamas

As some may be aware, two llamas have been around in the Ness area of Lewis for several months. They would go on walking treks on the beach at Eoropie and along the roads in the district.

Unfortunately, one of them was killed in a road traffic accident today. A motorcyclist collided with the animal, thereby sustaining broken bones and concussion himself. I am informed that the owner is understandably upset, and I am very sad that the unusual sight of Nico and Sam has now been removed from the roads of Ness. The blog about their activities has been cleared of content. I would also like to express my best wishes towards the speedy recovery of the rider, who required hospital treatment for his injuries.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Llamas at Skigersta, 19 July 2010"][/caption]

Bàthadh Chunndail

This is an event in the history of Ness which occurred in 1885. Twelve fishermen were lost as they were setting out from the bay at Cunndal, west of Eoropie. Angus Morrison, 36 Eoropie, was the skipper and his remains were the last to be recovered from the sea. He was buried on the machair nearby, just above Eoropie Beach (Traigh Shanndaigh). A memorial cairn has been placed there.

Today, a ceremony was held at the Comunn Eachdraidh in Habost (Ness) to commemorate the loss, and to dedicate a new memorial cairn to remember all those lost, 125 years ago. The event was to have taken place at Traigh Shanndaigh, but due to the inclement weather it was relocated indoors.

I apologise for the scant information available, which is based on a reference in the report of the 2006 Ness Archeological Landscape Survey. Apparently, more info is held at the CE Nis office; if I learn more, I shall add it to this post.

Visit to Ness

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.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The mainland hills, seen from the Habost machair"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Looking south, down the coast towards Dell"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Don't think these are very welcome"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Habost village"][/caption]

Ness

On Friday afternoon, I took the bus to Ness (fares had gone up, tut) to photograph more wargraves in the St Peters and Habost cemeteries. The machair was flowering beautifully, but the flies were horrendous. The presence of several dead rabbits in the old (St Peters) cemetery did not help matters. The same cemetery contains the final resting place of 400 old bibles, interred there in 2006 after being found to be too delapidated to be used again.

After locating a total of 16 gravestones, I headed up the machair for Eoropie Beach. It was more like Blackpool than the Hebrides, and those present were having great fun. I then proceeded further north, along the coastline towards the Butt of Lewis lighthouse, before rejoining the bus back to town.

Month of Decisions

Here we are then, in the second half of January, in eager anticipation of a couple of decisions which could seriously alter life in Lewis as we know it.

Before the end of January, the Scottish Government will decide whether it will approve the planning application for the North Lewis Windfarm.

Before the end of January, Caledonian MacBrayne will decide whether to sail from Stornoway to Ullapool on a Sunday.

I have pontificated at length on either issue, so am just listing them here.

Although Uist is outside my remit, I am just amazed at the formidable mess that has been made of the suggested move of the mainland terminus for ferry services from the Southern Isles. There is some wrangling going on, as convoluted as it is unnecessary. I would think that shaving 3 hours off a 6 or 7 hour ferry crossing would be welcome, whether you're in Barra or the Uists...

Better close with some images of Ness, which I took this afternoon as I was out photographing another war memorial.


Ness War Memorial, Cross


View behind the War Memorial


Low sun over houses at Cross


The road through Cross


Sheep in croft between Cross and Swainbost


Loch between Cross and Swainbost

A corner of Ness

Visited the old cemetery in the machair behind Suainebost on Friday, before walking up the coast to Eoropaidh. Just thought I'd share some of the images.

Galson buy-out

Last Friday saw the formal take-over of the Galson Estate by the Galson Trust. It marks an important point in the history of community buy-outs across Scotland, a movement initiated in 1993 by the residents of the Assynt Estate in Sutherland. They were the first to purchase parts of their estate, and legislation put into place within the last few years has cemented the trend set by others, such as the Isles of Eigg and Gigha.

At the moment, it is possible for residents, living on any privately owned estate in Scotland to mount a hostile take-over bid for their land against any sitting owner. Even if said owner is not prepared to sell.
Although the Galson buy-out started out as a hostile bid, an amicable agreement was reached with the outgoing owners. Galson's 56,000 acres is the second largest successful buy-out; in November 2006, the South Uist estate was taken over by the people of Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay, amounting to 93,000 acres.

My eye is now on South Lochs, and with a degree of concern. Back in November 2004, the people of the Park Estate voted in favour of mounting a take-over bid for their land. The current owner of the estate was not prepared to cooperate with his tenants, as he is hoping to make a packet out of the Beinn Mhor Power wind turbine park on parts of the estate.

Although the Park buy-out was commenced before Galson was, it is now bogged down in various problems. The worst is something called an interposed lease, which means (as far as I understand it, corrections welcome) that the owner leases the land to one of his agents, a separate company. And if there are more than one interposed leases, the law as it stands turns the whole exercise into a horribly convoluted nightmare.

The second problem is that there is no definite map of land in the estate. Areas of land are described, e.g. a croft "streteching 400 yards in a southwesterly direction from the Stornoway road". Some people have bought their own land off the landowner, others haven't. When I attended a meeting (in April 2006) concerned with a revision of Crofting legislation, trustees of the Park Trust complained bitterly of this whole quagmire, which could take up to 5 years to sort out.

Machair

The western seaboard of the Western Isles is world renowned for a habitat called the 'machair'. I'm no biologist and know only the very basics about it.
The bedrock of the islands is Lewisian gneiss, the oldest rock to be found on the surface of the earth. It is 3,000 million years old, and can be found open and exposed at the Butt of Lewis. It breaks down into very poor soil, where precious little will grow. Added to that the preponderance of peat, which creates an acidic environment, and you have a situation where not a lot will grow.
Until recently, the islanders would take their cattle to a shieling inland during the summer for them to gain strength. It was not unheard of for cattle to die of starvation during the winter, whilst grazing the very poor grass by the seashore.
What happens on the seashore is that sand gets blown in, to cover the soil. Sand from the sea contains calcium, more precisely calcium carbonate. This compound is found in seashells. It is also an alkaline, which will neutralise the acid from the peat. And now a very fertile environment is created. During a few short weeks in summer, the machair will come alive in a dazzling display of flowers. Orchids galore, it's a sea of yellows, whites and all colours. I've included a few images I shot during the past summer, to give an indication.


Flowers on the machair at Swainebost (Ness)

Flowers on the machair at Eoropaidh (Ness)

Machair at Barvas (Loch Street)

Machair flowers at Bostadh (Great Bernera)