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This is the first posting. Once I learn to operate this site I will put more detail on

Thanks to Hamish Whicker for rumbling us Hawaiiaich - maybe the famous Loch Seaforth palm (Palmus Hearachus) gives it away.

Here is a view taken after the January 2005 storm - the shingle has been cast higher than ever before. Looks like tonight's storm is not so bad. Still, we've got a few months to go yet.

Just to show the sun rises here in the summer too (sometimes)

This principally for Arnishlighthouse but also for all those who love remote places - this picture shows the cultivation ridges of Reimseabhagh (pronounced 'Ramasaigh'), no 10 on your map of deserted villages in Park or a' Phairc Leodhasaich, just across Loch Seaforth from Molinginish. It is a very beautiful place and life there must have been good. The inlet is well sheltered and the small village well sheltered from the west winds by the hills. I believe it was cleared early in the 19th century.

The MacLennans who lived in Gearradh a Loiteigeir, the little village west of Reineigeadal and half way to the head of Loch Trollamaraig were evicted from Reimseabhagh. They, or some of the family prospered however in Gearradh a Loiteigeir. Near the edge of the land in Gearradh a Loiteigeir is the ruin of a house. All that is left are two chimneys. Down by the very edge of the land is the ruin of what was a shop and beside it a pointed building which was the store for the shop. It is pointed because the roof was the front end of a boat. The shop was well sited as the rock goes down straight into the sea and the sea seldom breaks there. It was a good place for his customers, who in those days were all water-borne, to tie up alongside to get to the shop. His customers came from Reinigeadal, Moilingeanais, Gearraidh Mhurchaidh, Noiseadair, Elieananabuich, Maraig, Scalpaigh and also included the keepers' families in Pairc. The shop sold things like paraffin, dungarees, tobacco, oatmeal, sugar, tea etc - much on credit. The credit was often redeemed by the bartering of a tweed which the shop owner would then sell on at a profit. A most unusual or unlikely place we might think for an entrepreneur nowadays, but such helped to keep the economy going in much harder days than we can ever imagine.

Tha mi air a bhi tinn airson dha no tri laithean - 'se nadur do 'flu' a th'ann agus chan eil cail eile air a shon ach dram a ghabhail agus a dhol a laighe sios.

Had a kind of flu-like bug the last few days. Best cure is a large dram and go to bed for a while. It is doing the rounds - the first symtoms are pains in the insides, upset intestines, sore bones and joints then chest infection. The dram might not cure it but it gets rid of the symptoms for a while!

All the best to fellow islandbloggers - as they say in Gearraidh Mhurchaidh, 'Noli illegitimae carborundum.'

Mar sin leibh

Murchadhmor

Ceannamhor, anglicised as Kenmore, lies across Loch Seaforth from Maraig. After the people were evicted in the huge clearance of Pairc, a shepherd's house was built. As the use of the land deteriorated from sheep farming to deer forest, the building became a keeper's house. When I last visited, peeling newspaper, pasted and painted over on one of the walls, carried a report of the battle of Omduman.

The original village was quite extensive as can be seen from the extent on the ground of cultivation ridges

The picture shows Tob Tuath na Ceannamhora, a beautiful and seldom visited corner. I am not sure but the ruin could have been a mill.

Picture shows Teilisnis, on the north coast of West Loch Tarbert, Harris, from where Fionnlagh Og (Campbell) and family were evicted in 1823. They were given the tenancy of Molinginish, until then grazed as part of the farm of Scalpay. Fionnlagh was the ancestor of most of the later people in Molinginish. His son Ruaraidh Mor succeeded him. Ruaraidh had eleven children that I know of, all born in Molinginish. A major task ahead of them was to create the hundreds of cultivation ridges - which would in turn have consumed an enormous tonnage of seaweed every year.

During Decenber the sun rises behind Scoracleit and Beinn a Chaolais. The days are short but on a fine still morning there is nowhere better to be.

Chan eil dealbh agam an diugh. Tha duil agam a dhol a choimhead air an eathar agam an diugh - tha i air tir an drasda - taing do shealbh, neo biodh i air a dhol fodha bho chionn fhada leis an droch thide a tha air a bhi againn chun a seo. Ma chi mi cail sonraichte togaidh mi dealbh dhe. Latha socair ciuin.