Trip to Scotland 1983: Four and half months in the Highlands and Islands

[DCampbell16B]

Up and planning on Tarbert fair today. Storm out. Rain 45 to 30 degrees from horizon. Big breakers Loch Stockinish. Very impressive, but not encouraging for fair. Supposed to clear off by afternoon. Need to shop and bank in Tarbert. Loch Maddy next? Couldn't get through on phone to A MacLeod. Stormy today. Spent day at Harris Ag and Craft Fair. Cattle judging. Went w/ girls from hostel that ere also at Uig. Crafts, food judged. Jumpers were £20-25vfpr Fair Isle jumper. Brown Aran jumper I wanted badly for £18, gone before I got there. Talked with English girl "Biddy" of Middlesbrough, North England for a couple hours before she took ferry and I got bus. Nice to talk to someone who understands English and I can understand. Glaswegians lose me. Don't know what to do tomorrow.

[I remember listening outdoors to the head of the Harris Tweed Association speak to the small crowd. I think his name was Donald MacKay? He would say a sentence in English, then the next one would be in Gaelic. The food and Craft judging was inside a hall. Marion Campbell worn first prize for her volt of tweed. It was her third year in a row.]

[DCampbell16B]

40p phone
35p bus
£1.10 lunch
£26.00 sweater

Phone A MacLeod from Leurbost

Brown - crotal
Lt Brown - Rockport
Blue - indigo - chemical
Green - indigo - chemical
Finished tweed rewarded

Layer lichen bottom of pot
Fleece
Lichen
Sandwiches
boil madly 4 hrs open top(?)

Rewarped loom. She is only one while does the whole thing from spinning to washing. She works[?] self, so only makes 10yd pieces, as anything larger cannot he handled. Want to see nephew Alistair Campbell who has shop in Plockrapool (Tha mi a'dol a Phlockrapool). Aran knit sweater £26. Navy blue only. Sound try Mrs. MacKen(unclear) Main St Stornoway. Ate lunch. Caught van (grocery) and got Caribon(unclear) and Abernethy biscuits [for Americans, and maybe others, they are slightly smaller than what we refer to as English muffins. But otherwise exactly the same.]
Went back as she was wishing tweed. Wellies stomping in a wooden tub. Then she took it into a small hut and waulked for 1½ hours. Had tea, heard stories. Ols ladies uses to slap younger girls (interspersed) if they didn't get hands high enough [I think I meant the girls were interspersed between to the older ladies]. Used to do 60-70 yards w/ 6-8 women so took same amount of time [1½ hours]. Did half the tweed at a time and marked ½ with a string. Girls would move the string to make the time last longer. Sometimes in winter if the tw÷s wasn't shrinking (cold) the men would think nothing of helping. Didn't take a picture, would have ruined things. 1½ hours thumping. Could imagine old days. But other boys would stand around outside the window and call to hurry up w/ tweed. Walked from Plockrapool to Stockinish. Ate and played football with local boys. She can weave 10 yards in same day if loom warped and shuttles filled before she starts in the morning.

[When I got to her house, the door was open, so I poked my head in. It turned out the door was open because only her brother was there and he was extremely deaf and could not hear a knock. He was in a recliner across the room and when he saw me he let out a stentorian roar "A' Mairaid!!" It was the fist and only time I have heard a yell so loud. I think it is the first time I've used that phrase in a sentence. Anyway, Marion came in from the back and invited me around to the shed. I do not need a picture to remember standing in the door and watching her beat that tweed on the walking board.

The notes above on dying colors were from what she talked about.

While I was there the grocery van came around and she had to stop to get groceries. They were going on in Gaelic and I could catch just enough to hear her talking about winning g the tweed competition the day before.

I finally bought a sweater from a roadside shed. The lady came out from the house to show me what she had. I bought brown Aran knit of local yarn. £26. I still have it. She also had kilt hose dyed yellow with local plants, £4, which I did not get.]

[DCampbell16B]

https://postimg.cc/4YkCwQ37

Wellies and jumper that have served me well.

If I remember correctly, the wellies were £4 from a shop back in either Pitlochry or Perth. I wore them a lot in Scotland, occasionally to substitute for hiking boots. Surprisingly I got away with it without damage to my feet.

The jumper is the one mentioned above, and does get worn, but not as often. It is very heavy and stood me in good stead in Scotland.

[DCampbell16B]

£1.90 bus

Conned Englishman to take me up to main road to catch bus. His kids ordered him around. Waited 1½-2 hours for bus. Ran on hills for a bit. Took bus to Leurbost. Heard plenty of Gaelic. 2 girls behind me about 16-18 spoke ½ time English and ½ Gaelic [they would say something in one language and then the next was in the other. Regardless of which language, it was slowly spoken. I heard one of them say "We're in Leodhas" speaking English and using the Gaelic pronunciation of Lewis.] Waited at the crossroads for A. He was late. Got my stuff in the car and went to Great Bernera. Hot water pipe running from peat stove had burst. No more hot water (barring shower, which has its own heating unit).

[Showers were not common, but A had installed one in his second place. His business was based in Glasgow. The water was stored in a cistern in the roof or ceiling. A pipe ran down to the stove to heat it. I'm not sure of the details, and would appreciate anyone explaining to the group.]

Spent afternoon cleaning kitchen, mopping up peat soot. Also cooked burgers over fire, barbecue for boys (he also had a couple younger guys visiting). A and self had ate fried herring and fresh potatoes. Spent evening fishing on loch from Breasclete [in wooden rowboat in East Loch Roag]. I didn't catch anything, but other got a mackerel, and a few "saithes, laithes? Had a 10 pound salmon in a net, which I saw. Also places to put nets.

[First, apologies to @Jock Scot, but I saw and was involved in illegal salmon poaching. Leodhasachs were much more likely to take salmon than anywhere else in Scotland because in many of the districts the land was owned by the crofters in common. They made it much harder for the authorities to catch them. I helped with a net off the west side of Great Bernera. I also heard how they would signal that the authorities were heading out in a boat, at least in the days before cell phones one thing was to hang a dark tarp on the side of a white building. That gave the men with an illegal net time to sink it.]

That night got stories from Iain Tom (married to cousin of A) and A. About the Brahan Seer and personal stories of 2nd sight. Brahan Seer is well known here because he grew up in Uig [Uig Lewis, not Uig Skye] and may have been born in Ness. A's mother is like that and A sometimes. Told me about Dolaidh Angus and when he died. There was a great storm and he knew something was wrong. He called here couple times. They [relations] called him back and told him. Dolaidh Angus was a 1st cousin to A. [Dolaidh is a nickname for Donald in Leodhas. Another is Seonaidh for John]. He drank excessively. People would put him a car and he'd drive home. Never caught. A's mother from Great Bernera. She has more of an accent than her husband, whose English is very good.

[Notes put down the next morning] Dance last night, disco. Didn't go. I'd have looked more like a chaperone than a dancer [and to be honest, I couldn't dance then and still can't]. Out here they set up salmon nets and moor boats the same way. Anchor a floating ring and pass an endless loop of line through it back to shore. You get off the boat at the shore, tie a line to the loop and pull it out to the ring in deep water. The loop is dropped in a rock crevice and two handy rocks jammed in.

Also stories of Dolligan, who steals things and has a note from a doctor so gets away with it. A little soft in the head. Has gotten salmon from A and Iain Tom's net. The boys dumped some of his milk to get him back, but his sister is the one who will have to clean it up. A was mad at them but knew they did it with him in mind.

Lewis is flat compared to Harris. Great Bernera is very Rocky, but Ness is supposed to be flat.

Motor on boat temperamental. Rowed some []. Oars are long and thin like Aran Islanders.

https://postimg.cc/470YKSQF
Ordnance Survey Map showing part of Lewis and Great Bernera

[Jock Scot]

Worry not my dear chap, at least there were enough salmon around in those days to spare the poachers a few.

[DCampbell16B]

That's good. I was hoping the statute of limitations had run out.

[DCampbell16B]

https://postimg.cc/D41zYy11

Drawing shows how boats were anchored. If a net was illegally set and had to be hidden, all one had to do was drop a weight on the donut shaped float and the whole thing would sink to invisibility.

[DCampbell16B]

Walked by an old stone house and found a salmon net. Water incredibly clear. Can do marine bio studies w/out gear. Just look in water. Ate lunch spam and Heinz sandwich spread. Went to Stornoway for some supplies. Found French family w/ VW camper stuck in mud [they had gotten just a wheel or two off the roadway]. Tried to help but needed tractor. Ground is peat and couldn't hold van. Came back from Stornoway and they were out. Ate supper Scots meat pies and chips. I cut chips and packed pot and car [unclear] for tomorrow. Evening lifted motor then net, as even poaching is not done on a Sunday. A fell in. 1 dogfish and some 1000 jellyfish. Came back and overhauled motor [I know that sounds like I was helping, but I don't know much about engines and I probably just handed tools and nodded sagely]. 2 thatched buildings in Breaclete. Old buildings near net. One ½ in hill and dirt w/ side and fence. Net near old place at A's Aunt. She lives with Iain Tom now very near. Will reset net Monday morning before going to Ness.

[stickman]

Looks like you were getting quite proficient at poaching. I was pretty good at it when I was an apprentice. Made more money from a box of shotgun shells than I made working a 48 hour week. It’s fun ain’t it?

[Jock Scot]

To be serious for a wee moment. Perhaps some outwith the UK may not understand that poaching is not always regarded as some quaint form of “feeding the starving family” and “just a bit of a lark”. Poaching is a form of theft and is still to this day regarded as such in the UK and is reinforced with fairly strict laws on the matter.