Steòrnabhagh is the biggest settlement on Na h-Eileanan Siar. Lewis, on which it is sited, is also known as Innse Gal ….the Island of Strangers – a label coined by Gaelic-speaking outsiders to identify a population whom they saw as representing something quite alien and distinct from their own cultural norm.[1]
The theatre, An Lanntair – and Stornaway generally – was a welcoming place.
Lewis is a place that has suffered even more grievously in the last 250 years than other parts of the North including Assynt and Caithness.
The clearances on Lewis were begun in the closing years of the 18th century by MacKenzie lairds eager to increase their rents by expelling existing tenants and leasing their land to sheep ranchers, generally from the mainland.
The deeds to the island were bought by a taipan, James Matheson, in 1844, shortly after he retired from the opium trade. Born in Lairg in Sutherland, Matheson made a fortune in the Far East between 1820 and 1840, filling a vacuum created when the East India Company lost its monopoly in the region. He was instrumental in lobbying the British Government to open China to the opium trade (that he and his partners in Jardine Matheson coordinated from Hong Kong) by military intervention.
Matheson’s first act on taking ownership of Lewis was to clear 500 tenants from the area near Stornaway to make way for his stately home – Lews Castle. Between 1844 and 1850 Matheson ‘invested’ £329,000 in ‘his’ island and ‘assisted’ 2271 inhabitants to ‘migrate’. Many others had to ‘assist’ themselves. During the Fuadach Nan Gaidheal (Expulsion of the Gaels) , thousands of Leodhasachs were cleared from their traditional tenancies and migrated.
The dispossession was resisted, however. In November, 1887, several hundred crofters from the Pairc region staged a deer raid in protest at their treatment by the Mathesons. Prior to the raid, many Pairc townships had been systematically cleared to give greater access to land that was now regarded, primarily, as deer hunting ground for the rich. The boundaries of the deer forest widened as townships were cleared and tenants marginalised; crofters working the land for survival were regarded as a hindrance to sporting pleasure, and were treated accordingly.
On the day of the raid, the Leodhasachs met Mrs Platt, the sporting tenant of Pairc, as they approached their agreed starting point. She invited them to Eisgean Lodge for food and drink. They declined and commenced with the hunt. In protest at the loss of their land, they killed a large number of deer, many of which were distributed to the needy.
In the aftermath, the authorities panicked, read the riot act and arrested 6 of the raiders. The trial collapsed, however, and the action was instrumental in beginning the process leading the Crofting Act of 1886. [6]
Despite decades of clearance from their traditional lands, a great many men from the island still enlisted (or were conscripted) into the British Armed Forces during World War One. 1151 men from Lewis and adjacent Harris died during this conflict. As if to deepen the scars, 205 islanders, demobilised from the Armed Services and returning home from the War, died on the night of 1st January 1919 when the Iolaire foundered on Biastan Holm (the Beast of Holm) rocks on its approach to Stornaway Harbour.
In 1918, James Matheson’s great-nephew sold the deeds to the island to another oligarch, William Lever, for £150,000.
Lever had made his fortune manufacturing soap. In the early 1900s, he used palm oil produced in the British West African colonies. The need to expand capacity led him enter a concession in the Belgian Congo to obtain additional supplies: many of the plantations in the Congo from which Lever sourced his oil used a system of forced labour little better than slavery.[4] Palm cutters failing to meet requirements regarding compulsory cultivation of crops were liable to prison sentences, where the chicotte, a type of whip, was used.[8]
In 1918, Lever had ambitious schemes for the ‘modernisation’ of Lewis and Harris. New fishing fleets would catch fish spotted by land-based aircraft; new ports would be built linked by railways and new roads to Stornoway, which would be transformed into a huge fish-processing centre. The output would be marketed through a 400 strong chain of retail fish shops, MacFisheries, set up across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile a chemical industry would be developed processing seaweed ; peat would be used in large scale power stations; and unproductive land transformed into forests or fruit and dairy farms. Lewis would grow to become an island of up to 200,000 people. In the following years, Lever invested almost a million pounds on ‘his’ island.
Many of the Leodhasachs had a different view of their future, however. For many decades there has been growing dissatisfaction over the fact that insufficient land was available for crofting. “Land raiders” settled on areas of Lever’s farmland near Stornoway in an effort to force the creation of more crofts. The government declined to give Lever all the support he thought he was due.
In response, Lever bought the whole of Harris. In the face of more occupations of his land in Lewis, Lever announced that he was ceasing development work in Lewis, and would focus wholly on Harris. The centre of his attention would be the small fishing port of Obbe (An t-Oib). Lever also revived the whaling station at Bunabhainneadar.[4,9] At this time, Lever considered introducing whale meat into the food market in the Congo.
By 1922, the situation in Lewis had become so difficult that many of those who wanted crofting land chose to emigrate instead. 300 Leodhasachs left the island on the SS Metagama on 21st April 1923 – 100 years ago. They left because they saw no prospects on the island. All but 20 of them were young men. The average age of the migrants was 22. [5]
In September 1923, Lever offered to give Lewis in its entirety to its residents. His proposal was to divide it into two areas: the land within 7 miles of Stornoway and the rest, giving each part to a separate trust to be set up for the benefit of the residents.
It became clear (on some basis) that the Stornoway element could be ‘self sustaining’; but that the second proposed trust looking after the remainder of Lewis could not. The UK Government refused to cover the funding gap of £1,365 per year needed to allow the second trust to operate. The land offered as a gift – most of Lewis – was instead put on the market, though it proved very difficult to sell at any price. [4]
Despite its light and space, its huge skies and wild lands, Innse Gal is another tragic, depopulated place – traumatised, perhaps still brooding on past hurts. Here are some of the things I heard during the after show discussion at An Lanntair in Stornaway.
I heard that life under tyrannical landlords such as James Matheson was described by a Lewis crofter: “All we can expect is to live as slaves and die as beggars. ”[3]
I heard that proposals for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) will reserve 10% of inshore waters to support ecological recovery. That they will do more for the environment that the John Muir Trust or Nature Conservancy ever has.[10]
I heard someone say that crews from the whaling station at Bunabhainneadar on Harris killed and dismembered thousands of blue and fin whales between 1904 and 1951. As part of Scotalnd’s first oil boom, the Harris Station generated 80,000 barrels of oil (80mb). [7]
I heard that the master on the Tharos on the night of the Piper Alpha explosion was criticised for laying off on seeing the first glimpse of flame.
I heard someone say we should prosecute the perpetrators of ecocide.
I heard that Lewis is a traumatised community, still working through its losses. Folk there don’t want to lose any more.
I heard that there is a persisting need for hope in the face of the Climate Emergency.
I heard that Scotland’s inshore waters (within 3 miles of the coastline) is equivalent to the total land surface of Scotland.
I heard someone describe himself as a ‘recovering environmentalist’.
I heard that direct action is needed if we are to shift the paradigm.
I heard that, when the people were cleared, the lights went out and all that was to be seen at night was an eerie blackness and these evictions were referred to as N’ duair a chaidh na solus ais (When the lights went out ) [2]
I heard that The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil preceded us to Stornaway 50 years ago.
I heard that there is a need to evangelise.
I heard that someone had to burn 150 miles of diesel to attend the show.
I heard that live audiences are not returning to An Lanntair after the COVID-19 pandemic in the numbers that were common before the pandemic.
I heard that XR had ‘quit’.
I heard someone say he was in extended period of grieving for the planet and if we did funerals he would book us.
I heard that land trusts in Lewis and Harris are being bribed to use peatlands as carbon offset with energy companies providing financial inducements to sustain peatlands.
I heard that there is a danger that cheap local energy hubs will attract bit-coin mines and data centres creating no local employment.
I heard that a doctrine that states that God provided the earth and all its resources to human beings for them to exploit excuses ecocide.[11]
I heard there is staunch opposition to HPMAs on Lewis.
I heard, from a Marine Consultant who was flown to the Piper field on the 7th July, that film footage taken from the deck of an anchor handling vessel was crucial to understanding what had happened.
I heard that we should take Pibroch to all of the schools.
I heard that the economic benefits of offshore windfarms are by-passing communities, even on the east coast route south of Dounreay.
I heard that, like the salmon farming industry today, modern whaling was an industry exported out of Norway, in response to more restrictive environmental policies there (after decades of over-exploiting whales in Northern Norway).
I heard that we should crowdfund taking Pibroch into schools.
I heard someone ask how do we deal with the sensitivity of victims for such a live issue as Piper Alpha?
I heard that no one was held accountable for the deaths on Piper Alpha on 6th July 1988: there was investigation but no blame.
I heard that An Lanntair have had repeated requests to stream performances.
I heard someone say Rockerfeller saved the whale.
I heard that there are too many folk with comfortable incomes employed by XR and Greenpeace these days.
I heard that visitors to our Stornaway Hostel typically come from the Global ‘North’: which includes Australia and New Zealand.
I heard that there is a growing tension between theatre audiences and film making.
I heard someone say that Calvinist Presbyterianism is incongruent with climate action
I heard that only 3% of folk regard environment as a fundamental issue: the rest don’t give a toss!
I heard that we should bring back Sea Shepherd.
I heard that existing structures of Nation State governance are inadequate to the job of delivering Climate Justice.
I heard that raising a Green Party flag on Lewis would get your windows panned in. That the fire engine would turn up late even though the station was only 1 minute up the road.
I heard that the last blue whales were harpooned near St Kilda was 9 July 1951, when two females, measuring 66 and 80 foot long, were winched ashore at Bunabhainneadar.
I heard that tidal energy from sea lochs offers great potential for energy generation.
I heard that there are ingroup pay-offs in classing Climate Justice too difficult or too complex.
I heard that effective electrical transmission systems and relocation of economic activities is vital.
I heard that ‘our’ pension funds invest in big energy and it is hypocrisy of consumers who stand to benefit from these financial instruments look down on energy producers.
I heard that everything has already happened
[1] Re Innse Gall, a Norse frontier in the Irish Sea (stir.ac.uk)
[2] James Matheson – Wikipedia
[3]Notes on the Clearances of Uig, Isle of Lewis, and Isle of Harris (alastairmcintosh.com)
[4] William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland
[5] Emigration on the SS Metagama | Hebridean Connections
[6] Land Struggle: Pairc | The Croft (wordpress.com)
[7] Historical occurrence of whales in Scottish Waters inferred from whaling records (uhi.ac.uk)
[8] Huileries du Congo Belge – Wikipedia
[9] Whaling from Harris…the full story (welovestornoway.com)
[11] Genesis 1:26-28 ESV – Then God said, “Let us make man in – Bible Gateway
