Iolaire

This is a piece of Lewis history that I have mentioned before, but the sinking of the steamyacht Iolaire [Eagle] on New Year's Morning 1919 continues to haunt the memory of Lewis.

Following the Armistice on 11 November 1918, servicemen were allowed home for Christmas and the New Year. A large group of them congregated in the small port of Kyle of Lochalsh to take the ferry to Stornoway. It took two vessels to transport them the 70 miles north. They were eagerly awaited over on the island. After four years of war, in which 6,000 island men had joined up, 1,000 had perished. Food was on the stoves, lights lit and the celebratory bonfires for the New Year, the first New Year of Peace were prepared.

In worsening weather conditions, Iolaire approached Stornoway at about 1.55 a.m.. For reasons never clarified, she kept too far to the east and struck rocks near Holm Point. The 300 sailors on board tried to save themselves by going into the lifeboats - which were swamped and sunk instantly. Others swam ashore, but drowned or were battered against the shoreline cliffs. One man managed to bring a line ashore, which served to save 75. 205 drowned.

News travelled fast. Not one family was left unaffected, not one village didn't have a young man who had perished on that shore. Eighty of those lost were never recovered. Some were only found five months later, miles down the coast. The bonfires were never lit.

Lewis is world famous for the Callanish Stones, the Broch at Carloway, the Lewis Chessmen. This dark page in its history is very little known, although it is one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters of the 20th century. Everyone who arrives in Stornoway on the ferry from Ullapool passes the memorial pictured above, but few know what it stands for.

If you ever visit Lewis, include the monument at Holm in your itinerary. Go down the A866 road to the airport, and turn off just outside the village of Sandwick. You need to walk the last few hundred yards to the monument.