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So several of the carnival floats displayed 'castaways' and considered future uses for the living pods - possibly as a solution to local housing problems. |
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But the Lewis Carnival - which attracts hundreds of exiles back from the mainland and elsewhere each year - is only one of many such community events . Unlike several of the others, ,it has no sports events, although a carnival mile race was run for some years. |
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Sports are also associated with other events like the annual show in Carloway, Lewis, where an agricultural and produce show is combined with Highland Dancing and some sports contests. |
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In addition, there are many community fun days - with sales of work, boat rides, sideshows and children's features like bouncy castles. There are also several large agricultural shows - indeed, some of the Taransay castaways entered produce in the South Harris Show - which take place throughout the Islands, although there is a far wider range of produce and animals on show in those held in the Uists and Benbecula where better quality land enables a wider range of agriculture to be pursued.
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The months of July and August see the shows following each other quickly through the calendar - some held midweek, but most on Fridays or Saturdays. |
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Every year contestants in some sports events travel from one show to the next, trying out their skills, and this year the McClowns of Dundee - an eight-person anarchic performance group - also followed the festival trail from Ness in North Lewis to South Uist and back to Stornoway for the carnival. |  |
Causeways |
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Taransay - the base for the Castaway 2000 project - is one of a long series of Hebridean islands which have lost their communities in the past 100 years. The changes in transport and communications which have changed the lives of everyone in communities outside of the main cities in that time simply left these islands behind. But over the past 60 years, local and national government in Scotland has ploughed many millions into building bridges and causeways, as well as providing ferries, to reduce the geographic deficit suffered by communities remote from the main centres of population. This year, as the Castaways enjoyed the relative isolation of an island abandoned only 25 years ago, work was starting on an £8m project to link the island of Eriskay to South Uist by causeway and Barra by car ferry. The causeway to Eriskay is the largest civil engineering project of its type under way in the United Kingdom. To the north of Eriskay - which lies a similar distance offshore to Taransay - lie the islands of the Uists, Benbecula and Berneray, all now linked by causeways. A new car ferry service now links these islands with Harris and Lewis to the north. |
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When British Prime Minister Tony Blair along with his wife Cherie and Mr Donald Dewar, then Secretary of State for Scotland, opened the bridge to the offshore island of Scalpay in 1998, he was not only making the first official visit by a serving British Prime Minister to the Western Isles, he was also taking part in a long process of development on the Islands. Where the rest of Britain has built motorways and bypasses to supplement existing roads, the islands of the Outer Hebrides have faced the challenge of putting in roads where none existed before, to replace the sea transport that dominated past eras.
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The first link to be completed was the 82-span South Ford bridge from Benbecula to South Uist, completed in 1942. This was followed by the pioneering bridge to Great Bernera from Lewis opened in 1953. This was the first pre-stressed concrete girder road bridge in the UK. Next came the five-mile North Ford causeway from Benbecula to North Uist, opened by the Queen Mother in 1960. |
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In 1990, a causeway was opened linking Vatersay to Barra, enabling the population fall on Vatersay to be reversed. In late 1997, the Scalpay Bridge came into use. December 1998 saw the first crossing by car of the new Berneray Causeway, followed by its formal opening by Prince Charles in April 1999.
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The
causeway to Eriskay will end the isolation of its 150 people and make
Eriskay a link in the north-south route along the 135-mile island chain.
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Construction work on the Eriskay Causeway began in May 2000. Work there is being covered by a website www.cne-siar.gov.uk/eriskay The planned addition of a car ferry from Eriskay to Barra will see the linking by causeway, bridge or by vehicle ferry of all the Outer Hebridean islands which are still inhabited. |
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The underlying aim of the transport policy pursued on the Western Isles has been to prevent islands like Great Bernera, Vatersay, Scalpay, Berneray and Eriskay from the joining the roll-call of casualties - which included Atlantic island of St Kilda evacuated in August 1930. |
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was the end of many centuries of occupation, punctuated by disasters brought
about by disease from visitors, shipwrecks and the deadly eight-days sickness
which for decades in the 19th century killed two out of three babies born.
The population hit 200 in about 1810 before starting to decline.
Another group - the Flannan Isles - were the centre of a great mystery in December 1900 after the three lighthousekeepers who were their sole residents vanished without trace, a disappearance so sudden that a meal of cold meat, pickles and potatoes was left untouched on their table. Surviving notes showed they had just survived a storm so fierce that it had removed turf from the top of a cliff which normally stood 200ft above the surface of the sea. It is thought they were caught unawares by a huge follow-up wave and drowned. Other islands suffered the fate of Ronay, off Benbecula, which in 1826 had more than 180 people but they were expelled by the landlord. Its community then ranged between four and nine inhabitants until the 1931 census by which time the last had left. |
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GaelsThe growing strength of the renewed links between the Gaels of Scotland and of Ireland was demonstrated this summer when senior ministers from both the Irish and British governments joined Western Isles MP Calum Macdonald at the opening of a small centre for music and the arts at the northernmost tip of Lewis. Scotland Office minister Brian Wilson, who has a home in West Lewis, spoke at the opening of the Columba Project/Iomairt Calum Cille which he launched as a Scottish Office minister before devolution in 1997. It aims to foster closer links between Ireland and Scotland. He launched it to coincide with the visit to Stornoway of the then Irish President, Mary Robinson, who told of her hopes for closer links in a speech during her visit.
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Mr Wilson said the aims of the initiative were being fulfilled by the growing links between Ness and Connemara which saw Niseachs - people of Ness - visit Ireland last year and a return visit this year. Mr Eamon O Cuiv, the Irish minister for the Gaeltacht - the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland - as well as the arts and heritage, said the local priorities of maintaining economic activity, keeping the culture alive and developing contacts were echoed in his country. "I could have been at home listening to the same speeches, looking at the same problems, seeking the same solutions." He had been a manager of a local community co-operative - earlier Annie MacSween of Ness Community Council had recalled visits to and from Ireland when the community co-operative movement was being established in the Islands 20 years ago. He recalled Brian Wilson walking into his office to suggest Iomairt Calum Cille. "I was particularly pleased that this initiative came from Scotland to rebuild the links with Ireland. What we share is greater than what divides us." For instance, all but one of the Irish Gaeltacht areas were peripheral on the west and south coasts and on offshore islands - very similar to the Scottish Gaidhealtachd - although the Scottish islands had far more people. And Scotland was the nearest country to Ireland - only 11 miles separated it from County Antrim. In looking at economic development, Eamon O Cuiv suggested lessons could be learned from the image of Ireland - it had an image of music and dance internationally. At a time when the world was "becoming very much the same, people looking for things that are different." He added: "Things which are not valued within our own communities are becoming of great interest and value to a worldwide audience. In both Gaelic speaking areas we need young people to stay in their communities and work. We need to give them chances of gainful employment." |
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Harris is the mountainous Island which viewers of Castaway 2000 can see looming across the strait from Taransay, isolated from it by one of the many offshoots of the sea which divide the hundreds of islands in the Outer Hebrides.
For visitors, these are a real revelation, a lure for artists - sculptors, photographers, potters and other craftspeople - and for anyone with a yen for the unusual and a spot of adventure.
Harris itself is part of the biggest island, joined to Lewis to the north by a mountain range which led to them historically being regarded as separate islands. But today, with roads, ferries and air services they work as one.
If the Islands are regarded as isolated
now, they were not so in the past as they formed an integral part of
the Viking world 1000 years ago on the main sea routes of the North
Atlantic. The Gaelic word for Stornoway is Steornabhagh but this is
merely descended from the Norse Steornavagr. One of the many relics
of this extraordinary past are the Lewis chessmen normally held in the
British Museum, which were found at Uig on the west coast nearly 200
years ago, and now widely copied for sale by local craftsmen.
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After the Vikings came the Lords of the Isles, with atrocity after atrocity as families - or clans - fought each other for power and influence. Battered by the elements, remnants of that era lie in the ruined church at Ui on Lewis or more complete in the church at Rodel on Harris. |
There are also prehistoric field landscapes preserved intact for thousands of years, the amazing stonework of the broch (a double-walled circular tower) at Carloway, and the Calanais Stones - usually rated as second only to Stonehenge.
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The shimmering shellsand of south Harris - which has been a revelation for many TV viewers - creates a tropical fringe for the enormous empty beaches and towering sand dunes of Luskentyre.
South of Taransay lies Berneray where Prince Charles stayed incognito with a crofter (small-scale farmer). The islands are a good spot to find members of the Royal family, both as formal visitors and travelling through to their summer cruises. The Queen and others have been spotted picnicking on several of the remote uninhabited islands of the west coast and Prince Andrew pops in for a game at Stornoway Golf Club every now and again.
Golf is a recurring theme with courses amid striking scenery at Scarista in Harris, on Benbecula and in South Uist at Askernish which dates from the 1890's and was designed by a top course architect of the time.
Further south there is Eriskay which is famous for its role in the '45 rebellion when the Jacobite Charles III (Bonnie Prince Charlie) landed to start his march on London, as well as being the site of the World War Two sinking of the s.s. Politician, immortalised in the book and film Whisky Galore.
Beyond Eriskay there is Barra, which with adjoining Vatersay are the final inhabited gems in the necklace of the Outer Hebrides. The Barra Feis - Gaelic music festival - is widely renowned and other festivals are held throughout the Gaidhealtachd - Gaelic-speaking region.
Local products include the well-known Harris Tweed and a variety of pottery, jewellery and other craft items. Island baking is famed - particularly Prince Charles' favourite Clootie Dumpling - but is more common in sales of work and in private homes than shops.
Outdoor centres, such as one in Lochmaddy, North Uist, enable a range of sports including trekking, cycling, canoeing, sailing and windsurfing. For divers, the islands offer some of the clearest water in the world, plus many natural sites and shipwrecks to explore.
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Throughout the islands
there is abundant wildlife. Places like Loch Druidibeg in South Uist
have bird populations of international importance. The now rare corncrake
is battling for survival up and down the islands. Other indigenous creatures
include golden eagles, falcons, gannets, otters, seals, porpoises, dolphins
and whales. For the truly daring, there is St Kilda, 50 miles out in
to the Atlantic and host to many wild creatures.
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Restaurant menus in Stornoway, the capital of the Western Isles, have become intensely cosmopolitan in recent years. Over the same time, the town has undergone a rebirth, moving from a society dominated by traditional industries like fishing, spinning, weaving and crofting to one dependent on television production, call-centres and multi-media work. Now the town can boast the chance for people to enjoy Thai, Chinese and Indian food in different restaurants - along with a variety of takeaway establishments.
A number of restaurants both inside and outside the town serve traditional food, often based on locally available seafood and other produce. In addition, a range of local hotels also cater for a variety of food tastes, and specialist restaurants can be found scattered elsewhere on the Islands including a French restaurant on the most remote north-westerly point in Europe.
Overall, facilities in Stornoway far exceed what you would expect from a town of around 8,000 people in an area so remote from main centres of population. In fact, Stornoway - which is part of the Broadbay region of Lewis with a total population of around 14,000 - is the biggest community for many miles in any direction. For people with sports in mind there is a town centre swimming pool with fully equipped gym, a full-scale six lane running track and athletics arena and an all-weather sports pitch.
A variety of local clubs and societies make use of the harbour - which has an array of pontoons for yachts to moor at - as a base for all sorts of maritime activities such as diving, canoeing and sea angling. The Stornoway Sea Angling club's headquarters, beside the main ferry terminal, is also a major centre for all sorts of social activities.
Further along the waterfront is the An Lanntair Arts Centre, based in the old Town Hall, which has a cafe open all day serving a wide range of food. It has exhibitions running almost every week and also provides a venue for musical and other events.
On the musical front, there are a variety of one-off events, such as the Hebridean Celtic Music Festival in July or Pipe-Major Donald Macleod Piping Competition in April. There is also a feis - 'Feis Eilean an Fhraoich' - in the summer, which is a music festival with tuition in a range of instruments. While mainly for Gaelic speakers, English speakers are also welcome.
The town is also the base for the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee - Comataidh Craolaidh Gaidhlig - which commissions programmes for the Gaelic television service which goes out mostly on BBC2 and Channel 3 but also on BBC1 and Channel Four. It has a large television studio - Studio Alba - as well as two independent television producers.
The Castaway 2000 island of Taransay is around two hours by road and boat from Stornoway, the capital of the Outer Hebrides. But the same travel time from Stornoway by air could take you to central Glasgow or Edinburgh - while an extra few minutes takes in the fastest flight from London Heathrow.
And Stornoway is also in an era of fast-moving technological and commercial change. It has been the focus of many new developments - with around 350 people employed in television, radio, newspapers and electronic media work including Internet and call centres. Few, if any, other towns of around 8000 people boast a higher education college - part of the University of the Highlands and Islands Project as well as a TV station, two radio stations - one in Gaelic - and a broadcasting authority - the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee or Comataidh Craolaidh Gaidhlig - with £3 million a year to dispense on programming.
It is the base for several Internet companies - the main one being iomart, which has several ISPs and contracts with Virgin and Freeserve amongst others. It now has around 100 employees and predicts this may double. Multi-media company Eolas has won a series of national and international awards for its TV programmes and for its World-Wide Web work.
There are also major fish processing plants owned by international companies, linked to fish farms throughout the islands. But not all the development has taken place in Stornoway - Callanish Ltd, part of the biotechnology group Scotia Pharmaceuticals, employs around 40 people on the west side of the main island of Lewis; a salmon processing plant which hopes to employ up to 60 people is under construction on the offshore island of Scalpay; and work on information technology projects takes place throughout the islands, in individual homes and small companies, such as Lasair in Benbecula.
But it is not all work - the three-day Western Isles Challenge, a world-standard event for runners, cyclists and canoeists passes through the town in May each year, or there is the Hebridean Celtic Music Festival which brings performers from all over the world in July, or for those with a liking for bagpipes, there's the Pipe-major Donald Macleod Memorial piping contest with the world's top performers in April.
Summertime sees the annual fish festival, a maritime festival and the Lewis Carnival bringing thousands of visitors to the town. Around half the 28,000 people of the Western Isles are concentrated in and around Stornoway, which has a vast churchgoing population and many different churches. Lewis and Harris are Presbyterian and Sabbatarian - meaning all retail outlets are shut on Sunday and there are no buses or ferries.
Twelve things you probably did not know about the Hebrides
Donald Munro: At a time in the 19th century when political concern in London was centred on expanding the number able to vote in democratic elections, Donald Munro combined almost every public office on Lewis to enable a reign of tyranny under the then landowner Sir James Matheson. He was the factor - landlord's agent - as well as the top law officer - procurator fiscal - and one of only two solicitors - the other was his cousin. Since he was also a J.P., people who crossed him found it rather difficult to get justice. He was deposed after a rebellion among crofting tenants in the offshore island of Great Bernera.
Iolaire: The greatest peace-time loss of life in a shipping disaster in British waters took place a few yards from Stornoway harbour on New year's Day 1919 when 205 men drowned as the Iolaire went off course in a storm and hit rocks. Most of the victims were soldiers and seamen returning from the Great War - many had survived four years of war to die within yards of their homes.
Iceland: North Lewis is almost as close to Iceland as it is to Kent. Stornoway airport is 600 nautical miles from Iceland's capital Rekjavik and 450 miles from London. Stornoway is further west than Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and at the same latitude as the snowy wastes around Hudson's Bay in Canada and about 200 miles further north than Moscow.
Flotsam: It is not only the warmth of the Gulf Stream which crosses the Atlantic from the Caribbean to the Hebrides - rotten pineapples and coconuts wash up on the shore of Taransay and other islands. The remains of a catamaran which had been abandoned by its crew in the West Indies came ashore on Taransay in the 1970's.
Slavery: In 1739 in Finsbay, Harris, across the hills from Taransay, around 100 local men, women and children were tricked or kidnapped on to a ship to be sold as slaves in the West Indies. The scheme had been masterminded by local landlords. Most of them managed to escape after the ship docked in Ireland but it is thought that few returned home.
Gaelic spirituals: Paul Robeson performed Gaelic songs at the Albert Hall in London in 1938. He said: "Gaelic songs have an affinity with Negro spirituals. Like all folksongs of the world, they are not composed. They are the spirit of the people set in music."
Television: The first public demonstration of television in Stornoway took place in 1959. Stornoway had a cable television service for several years, run by the local firm of Maciver and Dart before full-scale transmissions to the islands started from the Eitshal mast started in 1971.
Across America: The first recorded European crossing of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean across what is now the United States of America by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804-6 was ordered by the third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson after he read a book about a crossing of modern-day Canada by Stornoway-born Alexander Mackenzie. Mackenzie, whose name lives on in the great Mackenzie River, made his journey to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans in 1789-93.
Arthur Ransome based one of his Swallows and Amazons books, Great Northern, on a visit to Lewis;
the Macaulay family from Uig, Lewis produced the anti-slavery campaigner Zachary Macaulay and the historian Lord Macaulay;
the Maciver family also from Uig, Lewis helped found the Cunard line;
former Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod came from Lewis;
as did multi-millionaire Donald Trump's mother's family
