MORVERN lines
Books are all very well but with so little local history being taught in primary schools these days, a huge amount of traditional history is rapidly disappearing. I don’t know why the Scottish education system continues to favour events far removed from the Highlands and Islands such as Agincourt, Hastings, Naseby and Plessey, instead of the battles of the Braes, Traigh Gruinard, the Pass of Brander, Glengarrisdale, Bloody Bay and Glen More on Mull, to name only a few. All of these helped shaped the history of the Gaelic West Coast and made it the place we know and cherish today and for that reason they deserve to be better known.
In 2013, £1.8 million from the European Regional Development Fund was granted to help transform Lews Castle, which had been closed for almost 25 years, into a Museum for the Western Isles. Centrepiece of the new museum, which was opened a few weeks ago in Stornoway, are some of the world famous Lewis Chessmen. Normally the figures are on display in the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, but now, thanks to a group of dedicated Lewis historians and politicians and a state-of-theart museum, six of these iconic objects rest there on permanent loan.