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The Village Prayer House and the Voluntary Gaelic Schools |
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The village prayer house has long been an established institution in the life of the community in the Scottish Islands and through it lay members take a very active part in the affairs of the Gaelic Church. That came about through the instrumentality of the Edinburgh Gaelic School Society, which had a tremendous impact on the outlook of the people both in the field of religion and education in the 19th Century. |
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Driftwood and 'The Park Murder' |
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In the 18th and 19th Centuries timber was very scarce in Lewis hence the reason why any useful drift wood that was thrown up on the shore by the sea, was highly appreciated as well as used for roof timbers. If however a suitable log came ashore they sawed it up into boards suitable for boatbuilding etc. The sawing of the logs was done in a saw-pit constructed for that purpose called ‘Sloc-sabhaidh’. The method of construction was to build two parallel walls about five feet high, a few feet apart open-ended. The log was placed on timbers over the pit and using a two handed saw ‘Sabh-mor’ with one man standing above and one below the log they could saw very big logs into thin boards. These saw-pits were usually near the shore. There is one in Tolsta Chaolais and there was one in Calbost on Croft No 10 near where Loch Dubh goes into the sea. The area is still clled ‘Sgaid Sabhaidh’. The idea came from Canada. |
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