65060: Carnish and the Pier

On Carnish Pier, Dun Gormsuil and the Ordnance Surveyors, from Uig News, December 2003.

For many years there has been a mystery over a short length of wall on the shore, the deep cutting in the headland and the small stone building on the other side of Mol na Duinn on the Carnish peninsula. Also there is a Dun marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1854) it is sited on the northern tip of the Carnish peninsula. In 1890 Captain FWL Thomas noted that there was a local tradition of a dun, called Dun Gormsuil, but he did not visit it. There is no trace of a dun at Carnish nowadays.

In the period from 1760 to 1790, Loch Roag and Uig Bay were renowned for their herring. There were upwards of 90 boats fishing in Loch Roag at the time. The fish curers bought the catch from local fishermen at 7/- to 10/- per cran. In the Old Statistical Account of 1793 it was noted that there were 275 net makers in Uig. There was also considerable activity collecting and burning kelp in the parish.

However, whether it was over-exploitation, or just one of those things, in the 1797 season there was a decline in herring numbers in northwestern waters. The herring fishery in Loch Roag failed completely in 1803 (although it did recover some time later). As a result fishing effort was turned to cod and ling, as well as lobsters and oysters. The deeper water fish really needed larger boats, which were beyond the resources of local fishermen. The fish curers were encouraged to provide larger 33-foot boats, and use local men as crew, who would get a share of the catch. These larger boats required safer landing places than the smaller boats. After the turn of the century, the value of kelp continued to increase, but in 1812 Napoleon was defeated and the price collapsed, as the cheaper products from Spain came back onto the market. The proprietor of the island was dismayed as he saw his income plummet, and decided that his future wealth lay in sheep and fish. In fact in 1793 Mr Francis Humberston Mackenzie advertised the whole of Uig for letting as a sheep farm. By moving the people off the land and into fishing, he could at one stroke release pasture for the sheep and increase his income from the fishery.

By 1815 Lord Seaforth was dead, and as the Brahan Seer had prophesied, his four sons had all predeceased him, so the Estate went to his daughter, Lady Hood. She was a widow, and married James Stewart, who had great enthusiasm for business enterprises, but little ability to run them profitably. The Salt Tax was lifted in 1825, making fishing even more lucrative, but somehow the wealth eluded James Stewart, and the Estate went into Trusteeship in 1833. In the Seaforth Muniments, there are letters in which various people had recognized the need for a safe anchorage for the larger boats in Camus Uig. Presumably the various small harbours and quays at Crowlista would not do. There is no mention of these existing facilities made in any of the letters.

Representations were made to the Fisheries Board, and a plan and specification were prepared in 1835 for a pier at Carnish. The completion date for the work was set as 30th September 1836. There were plans for a road to be blasted through, a wharf wall and breakwater to be built, and a curing house to be constructed. The purpose was to shelter the bay at Mol na Duinn from the Atlantic swells and all but the easterly winds.

As the name implies there was a dun on the headland close to the proposed site of the pier. As there is very little trace of this fortification nowadays, it must be assumed that the fabric of the dun was used in the building of the pier. The stone for the works was to be hammer-dressed, and lime and Roman cement to be used. The stones were to be drilled, and iron bars and bolts used to connect one block to the next. The courses were to be laid at an angle to the sea, so as to deflect the full force of the waves. Finally, a parapet, with copingstones was to be bolted onto the top. The cost was estimated at 1,810, of which the Fishery Society would provide two-thirds and the Estate were to pay the rest.

In the National Library of Scotland, amongst the Lighthouse Stevenson papers are the reports from the Fisheries Board. In these, the engineer Joseph Mitchell says that when he inspected the works they were satisfactory considering the material available to the contractor James Bremner of Wick. The stone was sufficiently strong, but difficult to work into neat masonry. However there is precious little left of the pier to be seen now.

There is evidence of the road cutting and the curing house and a remnant of the stonework. The area is strewn with large dressed blocks of stone, many drilled with holes, and some with iron bars still wedged in. The rock on which the dun once stood has been blasted to make a roadwayand there are some steps cut into the side. The local name for the beach is Traigh Chidhe, and it is said that many boats used this facility. There was certainly a substantial structure in the early 1920s, because Donald Matheson, originally from Crowlista and retired from the Manchester Police had a house built in Carnish. The stones for the house were removed from the ruined quay, taken by boat in the Red River channel and then by horse up to the house site at No.6. The mason who actually built the house was William Macdonald of No.9 Ardroil, who was originally from Uigen.

In the 1851 census there are two surveyors living at the farm at Capadail. Second Corporal Michael Hayes (31), and Thomas O’Farrell (33), both Irishmen and their servants John Morrison (22) and Ewen Murray (18) both from Stornoway, were staying in accommodation almost in view of the fifteen-year old pier. On the first edition OS map, dated 1854-1858, there is a dun marked on the point (on a tidal island) but there is absolutely no mention made of a pier, or even a ruin of one. So were they blind and deaf! As already noted, there is not much evidence of the fort left. However there are definitely the remains of a pier to be seen.

Fortunately the mapmakers kept notebooks in which they recorded what they found, and what they were told. In the "Name Book" for the parish of Uig there is an entry in what is probably O’Farrell’s handwriting, which describes "a small prominent rocky promontory on the south shore of Camus Uige. It is connected with the shore by a narrow neck of rock and sand, over which a rude stone bank or pier has been built to accommodate smaller boats in their landing". In different handwriting, which I take to be that of Corporal Hayes, it says "the attempt to build a pier has been abandoned – no Castle nor Fort on it…." They seem to imply that the pier was only partially built and then abandoned, so that there was enough structure to provide for small boats, but never a complete pier as was planned, for the larger boats. Certainly the mapmakers noted that Mol na Duinn "was sheltered and had the appearance of a tolerably good port, the water at its mouth is pretty deep".

However the engineer’s report tells a different story. In 1837 he reported the satisfactory completion of the works. Did Mr. Mitchell, who also designed the structure, have enough experience of the power of the Atlantic Ocean? It seems not, and the sea has a way of dealing with man’s puny efforts to defy its fury. The storms soon after completion, and then much later a retired policeman, reduced it to its present state.

It is worth noting that by the time the first edition OS map was published, Carnish, along with a considerable number of other Uig villages, was no longer inhabited, despite the fact that on the map there are clearly clusters of houses, marking the existence of a substantial village. In the 1841 census there were 35 households and a population of 168. Some of these were new to the settlement, having been moved out of neighbouring villages. In 1851 there were only 23 households, consisting of 105 people, but in 1861 the population is recorded as 0. The village of Carnish had been forcibly cleared of its people, to make way for a farm. Some of the Carnish folk were resettled locally, but the majority went reluctantly to Canada. The roofless shells of their houses and the song An Atairearchd Ard, written by Donald Maciver (son of John Maciver of Carnish), are the sad reminders of this cruel episode in local history.

My research included: The Seafort Muniments; Lewis by Donald Macdonald, the Stevenson Papers, and the OS Name Book. I would like to thank my informants who were Norman Macaulay, Carnish, John Macdonald, Islivig and Donald Maciver, Crowlista.

Dave Roberts, Islivig.