SMM+S

adb41 · Last edited by adb41 on Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

This memorial cairn stands about a mile west of the village of Balallan, along the A859 Stornoway to Tarbert road, close to the turn-off to Eishken. The latter is not a village, only a shooting lodge with attendant buildings. The district of Eishken is the large, depopulated southeast of the island of Lewis. Its (36) villages were cleared in 1821, and the land given over to sheep; later in the 19th century, the district was turned into a deer forest - please note that the Scottish definition of a deer forest means it has NO trees.

The congestion of crofting areas in Lewis lead the inhabitants to despair, and a group of eight men mounted a mass trespass on the derelict lands of Eishken in 1887. They killed and ate some deer, but dispersed peacefully after the Sheriff came down and read them the Riot Act at Kinlochshell. A number of them were eventually prosecuted and imprisoned in Edinburgh for a short term.

adb41 · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:47 pm Post subject:

Road sign at the memorial

Interpretative plaque outside the cairn

adb41 · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:48 pm Post subject:

Inside the cairn, you can climb up a metal, spiral staircase.