Pabay Mor - Loch Roag

Pabay Mor, in Loch Roag, was one of my first Island 'Consolation Prizes'. But it would be hard to find a better one. It was the year 2000, and I had tried to get out to the Flannans with Seatrek. But they had more lucrative business opportunities going on, and so my 'penciled in' Flannan trip was cancelled. But they did offer to drop myself, two friends, and Freddie (a Baile-na-Cille dog) off on the island of Pabay Mor.

Briomanish Village - Pabay Mor

Pabay was cleared of its people around 1820. It was briefly re-settled in 1840, but was cleared again in 1849. The village consists of about seven old houses and a kiln. Four of the houses still have roofs and are occasionally occupied.

In the distance in the next photo you can see the township of Valtos on mainland Lewis. The Valtos crofters have the right to graze their sheep on Pabay.

Pabay was a MacLeod island until 1800, and prior to that the Pabay MacLeods held a lot of territory in the Uig area. The following abridged excerpt from chapter 17 of book 2 tells how the Pabay Macleods lost control of their land on mainland Lewis.

In the fifteenth century the sons of MacLeod of Pabay Mor murdered the family of John Roy Macaulay, following a dispute over the ownership of a cow. Thirteen-year-old John Roy was away at the time, living with his foster-father in Mealista, on the west coast of Lewis. MacLeod of Lewis, not happy with the behavior of the Pabay MacLeods, ordered that in recompense they take young John Roy into their custody with a promise to keep him safe.

But John Roy's period of safekeeping did not last long. On a snowy November day the MacLeods took him on a hunting trip, and at Kenneth’s hut (NB 112 164), an old shelter near Kinresort, he was tied to rocks in the snow and left to the elements.

The ruin of Kenneth's Hut

John Roy’s foster-father had a premonition something was amiss. He hiked to Kenneth’s hut and found the near-dead boy. After resuscitating him with some warm milk, he carried him over seven miles of hills and bog to Mealista. Several years later John Roy would have his revenge when he pursued the eldest son of MacLeod to the shores of Uig Bay, killing him just before he could reach the sanctuary of St Christopher’s chapel. MacLeod of Lewis, in compensation for all John Roy had suffered, granted him some of the lands of Uig that belonged to the Pabay MacLeods. 

The most historical structure on Pabay is Teampall Pheadair, St Peter's Chapel. It dates to at least the 1500s, and lies above a beautiful white-sand beach a half-mile north of the village. 

St Peter's Church and beach

As you can see in the next photo there's not much left of St Peter's. A note on the CANMORE page for the church suggests it may have been bombarded by canon fire during the Scottish Crown's campaign against the MacLeods of Lewis in 1506.

What's left of St Peter's

At the north end of Pabay you will find a giant lobster pond. Lobsters caught at sea in creels were held here until market prices in England merited shipping them south. 

Lobster Pond and Freddie of Bailenacille

I have been fortunate to have spent many hours on Pabay in 2000, and again during a visit in 2011. I look forward to possibly returning again during our Hjalmar Bjorge cruise this May.

The Isle of Mary Rose

J M Barrie wrote the play Mary Rose between 1912 and 1920. He conceived the idea for the play—which is based on Celtic legends of faeries and Tir nan-Og, the Land of Everlasting Youth—while staying at Amhuinnsuidhe Castle on the shore of West Loch Tarbert. The story concerns the two strange disappearances of Mary Rose from The Island that Likes to be Visited. At age eleven Mary is left on this small island while her father is fishing. When he returns she’s nowhere to be found. Several weeks later she reappears with absolutely no memory of where she’s been, and no sense that any time has passed. Later in the story we learn a similar event had happened before, when a two year old boy had disappeared from the island; a boy who had yet to be found.

An Island in Loch Voshimid

Eleven years later Mary Rose visits the Hebrides with her husband and two-year-old son, a son supposedly born while her husband was away. The island calls again ‘but no one can hear it but those for whom it is meant.’ It is meant for her, and this time she disappears for twenty-five years. When she returns from that long absence we find she has not aged, and it seems to her as if only an hour has passed.

Loch Bhoisimid lies in the Harris interior, four miles north of Amhuinnsuidhe. The tradition on Harris is that an island in this loch had been the inspiration for Barrie’s mystical island. In the play the island has two trees, a pond, and a small hill—perhaps one of the faerie knolls of Celtic legend? It is also said to be an island that comes and goes, where again we have an item from Celtic mythology, the floating island. At the end of the story, a final bit of legend appears, when a piece of iron (her son's knife) holds open the trap to the faerie world.

I visited Loch Bhoisimid in 1998, on a long walk from Bogha Glas to Miabhaig via Kinlochresort (see Book 2, chapter 17). The water level was low at Bhoisimid, and I was able to cross stepping stones to a small island that seemed to like being visited (see photo below). I'd like to think it was the island that inspired Barrie, but no one really knows what island he had in mind, or if indeed it was any specific island.

Alfred Hitchcock dearly wanted to make a movie version of Mary Rose, but he could never convince a studio to do it. Even so, he commissioned a screen play, which you can read here. And listen to this link for an hour-long BBC radio play performed in 1991. 

Next time you are on Harris be sure to read the play and then make the walk to Bhoisimid. Better yet, take the play with you and read it on a little island that likes to be visited. Just don't fall asleep.

Gateways to Paradise - 2

Last time I described the two gateways to a hiker's paradise on Lewis; the front door entrance via Morsgail, and the back door track to Hamanavay. There are two other gateways to this incredible countryside that need to be mentioned. The first is the track to Loch Bhoisimid that begins at the head of Loch Miavaig. Along the way you can make a slight detour to see the Miavaig beehive cells, and then spend some time in an eagle hide. From the end of the track you can wander to your heart's content; possibly north across the trackless bogs to Kinresort, or east to follow the path to Bogha Glas.

Start of the track to Bhoisimid

The  second gateway is on the track that leaves the main highway at Bogha Glas, on the Lewis/Harris border. This is a serious path, with some significant ups and downs, and at the summit of the climb you will be rewarded with an amazing view over Loch Langabhat and the vast, uninhabited interior of Lewis and Harris. For a day-trip to remember, carry on to Kinresort, then head south to Loch Bhoisimid to exit via the track to Miavaig.

Start of the track at Bogha Glas - the Gaelic on the sign says 'Walkers Welcome'