8655: Murdo Macdonald of Crola

Compiled by Maggie Smith for Hebridean Connections

Murdo Chrola

One of the most educated men in Uig oral tradition was Murdo Macdonald (Murchadh Chrola) who had very limited formal education. Murdo was born on the 13 January 1907 in Crola where his father Calum was a shepherd. Crola was then a little community of five households scattered around the head of Loch Resort, on the border between Uig in Lewis and Harris. The village has now been uninhabited for many decades. Although the community was very remote it was neither lonely nor out of touch, dispensing bountiful hospitality to an amazing diversity of visitors from land and sea.

Murdo’s exceptional ability showed in childhood. At the age of seven, he recited, perfectly, a sermon he had just heard from the Rev James Macniven in the annual open air service at Kinresort. This was no mean feat as Macniven was renowned for the depth of his preaching. It was an omen of things to come; the boy developed into a man with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and the amazing thing is, that he educated himself to the level of sitting highers and acquiring entrance to the Faculty of Divinity at Glasgow University. He was a genius with supernormal powers of reasoning, doing well in every subject he studied but excelling in Philosopy, having read and understood books which were and are, standard University textbooks. Coupled with brilliance of mind was a most attractive personality, he was happy by nature, witty and full of fun, very kind with a tremendous capacity for friendship.

In a letter in 1937 Murdo writes from Crola to a friend:

I got a good pass in Greek and failed the English exam. Needless to state this was a keen edged disappointment, but life has taught me, to enlarge on one’s personal disappointments only tends to sharpen the edge. However owing to domestic circumstances it would have been impossible to for me to enter this year in any case, I was surprised at the result of the examinations . My Greek pass has 62 marks. In Greek 34 is the pass-mark and the Rev Duncan considered it "surprisingly high" and Rev Roddy Morrison said it was "marvellous" I should attempt it, for all the time since I took up Greek study".

Withinn three years of writing this letter Murdo Chrola was dead, at the age of thirty three and of an illness which is not nowadays fatal. Many of the older generation remembered him as a visitor at Communion times. Deeply religious from an early age, he was always called upon to take an active part in services, precenting, praying and speaking on Mens day. Although small and frail-looking he was of an arresting appearance and ever elegantly-clad.

He had a great love of poetry and could recite from Milton and Shakespeare but he gave top priority to Burns. He had the works of Burns off by heart and apparently an inimitable and masterly way of reciting whether indoors or out on the moor. Murdo Chrola had the gift of bardachd and wrote several hyms and compositions on events which took place in the Uig community in his own lifetime. This brilliant scholar who overcame isolation and lack of educational opportunity, struck down in his prime would undoubtedly have left his mark on the academic world of the 1940s.