Old Photograph Crofter Building Peat Stacks North Uist Outer Hebrides Scotland

Old photograph of a crofter building Peat stacks on North Uist, Scotland. North Uist in the Outer Hebrides was hit hard during the Highland Clearances, and there was large scale emigration from the island to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. As the residents of North Uist who were emigrating left Scotland not directly from North Uist but from one of the mainland ports, usually Glasgow, there are no passenger lists for North Uist. The first ship to bring Scots immigrants from the Western Isles to Nova Scotia was the “ Hector ”, which sailed from South Uist on 1 July 1772 and arrived at Pictou, Nova Scotia on 15th September 1772. The “ Waterhen ” and “ Cashmere ”, two ships chartered by Lord MacDonald of Sleat, the “ owner ” of North Uist, both sailed from Greenock, Glasgow, for Quebec City on 21 August 1849 with destitute families from his Estates in the Outer Hebrides. Many of those aboard were from North Uist and many of those went to Middlesex County, near London, in Western Ontario on arrival in Canada. There were also 250 passengers from North Uist aboard the “ Hercules ” which sailed from Greenock for Australia on 26 December 1852, 21 of the North Uist passengers died en route.



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