Folktales and Legends

South Uist has comparatively little bog land and many hills in the south, such as Ben More, over 2,000 feet, and Hecla but little lower, but much of the north end of the island is riddled with small lochs. In this island Clanranald and the MacNeil held sway in Reformation times and as they kept the old faith most of the people are still Roman Catholics. South Uist also kept more of its old stories and songs for a time than did North Uist, but here, too, many are now forgotten.

Loch Boisdale


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	Lochboisdale South Uist has comparatively little bog land and many hills in the south, such as Ben More, over 2,000 feet, and Hecla but little lower, but much of the north end of the island is riddled with small lochs. In this island Clanranald and the MacNeil held sway in Reformation times and as they kept the old faith most of the people are still Roman Catholics. South Uist also kept more of its old stories and songs for a time than did North Uist, but here, too, many are now forgotten. Loch Boisdale It was to Lochboisdale, South Uist’s chief port of call, that most visitors used to come by MacBrayne’s steamers, but now that a car-ferry runs from Uig in Skye to Lochmaddy in North Uist, many use that route. Lochboisdale is a place of some importance with an A.A. hotel and various industries including a seaweed factory near-by, and, of course, tweed making, for this Island, once very poor, is now one of the most prosperous. Seaweed has had a chequered career in the Isles and South Uist has shared all its ups and downs. Once it was collected as a right, for manuring the land; then came the order that it must be paid for. This led to much trouble. Kelp burning was once universal, then imported barilla killed the industry. Now seaweed has come into 6shion again and is a most valuable crop, some varieties being used for making plastics while others were used during the Second World War to make agar for growing bacillic cultures. Seaweed is a crop like any other, growing in the spring, dying, and drifting ashore or being reaped from special boats in the autumn. Some varieties, the great oar—weed for instance, can be much damaged, indeed rendered almost value less, if left to drift ashore on a rocky, bruising coast. Source: "The Outer Hebrides and their Legends", Otta F. Swire, 1966. Back