D For Drying, Dogfish & Dulse

29Apr09

Dogfish, Stornoway Harbour, Isle Of Lewis. Via Bluewave

Though fish were always a plentiful part of the islander’s diet it was important to make provision for leaner times and seasons when men could not get out to sea due to bad weather.
The drying of fish was an easy and effective method of preserving fish and the [...]

Filed under: Crofting, Fishing, Food, History, Living, Nature, Reference, Tradition   |  8 Comments

Taketori

29Apr09

Taketori – The Japanese Treeplanter is a poem by Lewis bard Daibhidh Martin.
The poem tells of old Tormod out for a walk on the moor near Baile Na Cille when he rests and watches a sparrow. He follows the sparrow along the Lewis coastline to a cave where he finds a bag of golden seeds [...]

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Island Top Trumps #3: Lady Matheson

29Apr09

Lady Mary Jane Matheson was the widow of Sir James Matheson.
She was the Lewis Proprietor at the height of the agitation for Land Law Reform in the 1880s, leading up to the passing of the first Crofters Act of 1886. She was quite unsympathetic to the plight of the crofter population. Despite many applications and petitions from [...]

Filed under: Community, Crofting, History, Reference   |  2 Comments

Island Top Trumps #2: Sir James Matheson

29Apr09

James Matheson was born in Lairg, Sutherland and having made his fortune from the Chinese Opium trade returned to Scotland and, in 1844, purchased the Island of Lewis for £190,000.
Matheson commissioned the renowned architect Charles Wilson to design his new island residence, Lews Castle, on the site of the Mackenzies’ Seaforth Lodge. Building work started [...]

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Island Top Trumps #1: Lord Leverhulme

28Apr09

The first in a series of notable island figures!

William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, lived from 19 September 1851 to 7 May 1925. He was born in Bolton, Lancashire and built up the Lever Bros/Unilever conglomerate. More usually referred to as Lord Leverhulme, he was an English industrialist, philanthropist and colonialist who, amongst many other ventures, for a [...]

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Peat Season

27Apr09

Freshly cut peats. Via Rudhach
Spring and better weather brings with it the cutting of peat on the island. While once upon a time it was the practice for the whole village to turn out and share the work of cutting, stacking and carrying the peats home, nowadays it is more common to see folk out [...]

Filed under: Community, Crofting, Culture, Environment, History, Living   |  2 Comments

C For Cows & Crowdie

25Apr09

Modern tub of Crowdie with oatcakes. Via clairofmountgrove
At one time it was common for crofters to keep three or four cows although latterly as breeding produced better milkers, the tendency was to just keep one. The cow provided valuable milk all year round and often allowed crofters to provide excess milk to their neighbours without charge. When [...]

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More About Mutton

25Apr09

Sheep flock, near Bru, Isle Of Lewis

Sheep farming experts generally agree that mutton refers to meat from sheep that are over two years old (lamb meat is generally from animals that have been reared for five months). Traditionalists argue that mutton is always the meat from a wedder / wether (a wedder is a castrated [...]

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Hogget & Mutton

24Apr09

With the exception of a few early spring-born lambs that are slaughtered in late autumn and winter, very few animals go beyond their sixth month, and most are killed at around their fourth or fifth. Yet without doubt the best sheep meat I have ever eaten has come from animals over a year old. In [...]

Filed under: Crofting, Food, Livestock, Living, Reference   |  4 Comments

The (Made Up) History Of Stornoway

24Apr09

In case you hadn’t flicked through their online history pages…
THE (MADE UP) HISTORY OF STORNOWAY WEBLOG

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