Lewis, General

LEWIS

(Lèodhas ... Leod's Island) The largest of the Outer Hebrides, Lewis presents a flat, black, fjord-probed wilderness very different in character to the sublime grandeur of the West Highland glens. The bedrock is archean gneiss, three million years old, its glaciated surface breaking through the blanket covering of bog and rising up towards the Harris hills. The grey, hard-edged face of the cement age has transformed the island's loosely-grouped townships, but many structures of interest survive. They need to be sought out though, and outwith Stornoway are mostly disused. They range from fragmentary survivals of early settlement - earth houses, wheel houses, island duns, brochs and barps - to scores of later vernacular buildings and simple 18th-and 19th-century architecture. Lewis bears a strong testimony to the Norse occupation of the Hebrides - Innse Gall, isles of the strangers - which ceased in 12 65. Thereafter, the Macleods of Lewis and Raasay steadily gained power over the island, but by the 16th century they were fighting for possession with the Mackenzies. In 1610, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail acquired the titles of Lewis (the Lews). Though mostly absentee, the Mackenzies appear to have been reasonably public spirited landlords, building roads, improving the Burgh of Stornoway, and eventually doing away with extortionate tacksmen. But as their financial affairs deteriorated in the 18th and 19th centuries, so they resorted to the favoured methods of Highland lairds: eviction and clearances. In 1844 , Lewis was purchased for £190,000 by (Sir) James Matheson (1796-1878), a native of Sutherland who had made vast fortunes smuggling opium into China. A co-founder of Jardine Matheson & Co. and MP for Ross & Cromarty 1847-62, he spent £32 9,409 in Lewis on works which included developing Stornoway, building bridges and schools, and nearly 200 miles of road across the island, and reclaiming land for crofters. In 1917/18 his great nephew Maj. Duncan Matheson sold 400,000 acres to Lord Leverhulme. The founder of Macfisheries set about trying to fulfil his idealised vision for Lewis as a thriving fishing centre - a sort of Hebridean Port Sunlight, with fish processing, refrigeration and canning factories, a commercialised tweed weaving industry, modern housing, a network of new roads and bridges, and a light railway. Although hailed initially as 'redeemer of our island' and shown trust and respect, he ultimately received little support from the crofters. Leverhulme's roots were in urbanised, industrial England and he was out of his depth in the Hebrides. He regarded crofting as the obstacle to progress and refused to split up the farms, arguing that they were integral to his masterplan as suppliers of milk for the population of Stornoway. Thus ensued the land raids of 1919/20s, and Leverhulme's eventual decision, following run-ins with the government and local crofters as well as a financial crisis at Lever Bros, to abandon his ill-starred venture. In 1923 , he gave the island to the people and turned his attentions to Harris. The Stornoway Trust was formed to administer Stornoway, but in the districts the majority turned down the offer of freehold crofts, and most of the rest of Lewis was split up into sporting estates and auctioned off on his death in 1925.

A symbol of Leverhulme's failed vision is the Bridge spanning a deep gully of the Abhainn Geiraha beyond North Tolsta. This impressive ferroconcrete structure is the support for a road that goes nowhere, the plan to link Stornoway with Ness still an unfulfilled dream.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NB33SW 36 30500 31000

NB21SW 2086 1458 Plantation

NB32SW 3489 2415 Drains; General View

2659 3034 Plantation

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

Scottish Record Office.

Building the Highland Parliamentary Churches. Alteration to the specification. Thomas Telford

has agreed to certain substitute materials. Letter from John Rickman to J Stewart

MacKenzie.

1827 GD 46/17/72

Public Buildings to be kept in repair at the expense of Seaforth Estate.

A list that includes Churches, manses, schools, Distillery and Curing houses.

1835 GD 46/4/275

Building of fish curing houses in Lewis.

Estimate by John Loban.

1822 GD 46/17/60