The Uig Peninsula in West Lewis lies on the edge of the Atlantic, some 20 miles north west of Stornaway. Considered remote, even by Hebridean standards, improved infrastructure has given the community greater access to services and made it possible to commute to Stornoway, but there remains a sense that this is still a place someway off the beaten track.
The geography of the peninsula gave it strategic importance during the years following World War II and traces of MOD activity can be found in the villages of Mealastadh and Breanais, at Ard Mor Mangersta and at Aird Uig and Gallan Head. On the windswept 60 metre tall cliffs at Gallan Head, a watchers hut was built for shelter. Local men in the Auxiliary Coastguard service kept a 24 hour watch for enemy ships. The hut was replaced by a NATO radar station in 1954 with a domestic camp adjacent to the village at Aird Uig. After this closed in 1963, some of the buildings were bought and turned into houses and the former administration block became a small hotel.
The area, like the mainland, suffered depopulation during the clearances and even today, sustaining paid employment to support crofting income is difficult. However a strong sense of purpose remains, defined by the Uig Community Centre Association as “a determination to ensure that Uig survives as a community in which children can grow up, livelihoods can be secured, traditional values are respected and the Gaelic language remains strong.”
Sites Unseen asks questions about the way we look at landscape, with particular reference to the idea of cultural focusing. The importance of the Uig Peninsula, the most north westerly point of the UK for surveillance during two world wars, from the Dad’s Army of the Coastguard Auxiliary to the high-tech of Nato’s defences, is undisputed. But is there an argument for safeguarding the traces of those times by conserving physical remains in beloved beauty spots? And in remembering history, would we discover a re-evaluation and appreciation of the spare beauty of what we now consider blighted landscapes?
