About
Uig Museum, or Taigh Tasgaidh agus Tasglann Ùig, is a volunteer-run community museum and archive at Crowlista in the parish of Uig, on the wild western edge of the Isle of Lewis. It is run by Comann Eachdraidh Ùig, the Uig Historical Society, and housed within the Uig Community Centre, serving a scattered parish of townships strung along one of the most spectacular and least-visited coastlines in the British Isles.
The collection covers every aspect of Uig's social, economic, Gaelic, military and religious history, from the Celtic and Norse periods through to modern times, and consists of images, objects and records built up by the community itself. Its most famous association is with the Lewis Chessmen, the extraordinary hoard of walrus ivory gaming pieces of Norse manufacture, carved most probably in Trondheim around the second half of the twelfth century, which were discovered in the sand at Uig Bay near Ardroil in 1831. Almost all of the surviving pieces are now held by the British Museum in London and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the museum's role is to explain their discovery, their Norse context and their continuing significance in the place where they actually came to light.
But the Chessmen are one thread among many. The parish's Norse inheritance runs deep in place names and settlement patterns; its crofting communities endured clearance, land raids and mass emigration; the Gaelic religious revival of the early nineteenth century made Uig a byword in Highland church history; and, like the whole of Lewis, the parish suffered catastrophic losses in the First World War, compounded by the sinking of HMY Iolaire off Stornoway on New Year's morning 1919.
The setting is a substantial part of the appeal. Uig Sands is among the finest beaches in Europe, a vast expanse of pale sand and turquoise water backed by mountains, and the museum sits within easy reach of it. Volunteers who staff the museum are typically from the parish and carry the kind of detailed local knowledge that makes a small community museum worth far more than its floor area suggests, and they are the reason a visit here repays the long drive out from Stornoway.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Contact Comann Eachdraidh Ùig before travelling. Opening is seasonal and volunteer-dependent, and Uig is a long drive from anywhere else on Lewis to find closed doors.
- Do not plan a Sunday visit. Sabbath observance is strongly maintained on Lewis and the museum, along with most island facilities, does not open.
- Set aside time for Uig Sands. The beach where the Chessmen were found is among the finest in Europe and is usually all but empty even in August.
- Allow far longer for the drive than the mileage suggests. The B8011 out to Uig is single-track in places with passing places, and progress is slow.
- If you have Uig ancestry, bring names, township names and any croft numbers you know. The community archive can often trace a family to a specific house.
- Fill up with fuel in Stornoway before setting out. Filling stations in the west of Lewis are few and keep limited hours.
- Bring food. Catering in the parish is very limited and seasonal, and there is nothing resembling a shop for long stretches of road.
- The replicas in the museum shop are the closest most visitors will get to handling a Lewis Chessman, since the originals sit in London and Edinburgh.
Highlights
The Lewis Chessmen and Uig Bay
In 1831 a hoard of walrus ivory gaming pieces was found in the sand at Uig Bay, near Ardroil, a couple of miles from the museum. Carved most probably in Trondheim in the second half of the twelfth century, the Lewis Chessmen are among the most celebrated objects of the medieval Norse world, their grimly expressive kings, queens, bishops and berserker rooks reproduced endlessly ever since.
The great majority are now in the British Museum, with a smaller group in the National Museum of Scotland.
The museum interprets the find and its Norse context in the very place it came to light.
The Norse Inheritance of Uig
The Hebrides were under Norse control for some four centuries, and nowhere is the legacy clearer than in Uig. Almost every settlement, hill, headland and bay in the parish carries a name of Norse origin, and the pattern of land holding still reflects Scandinavian practice. Displays draw out this inheritance through place names, archaeology and the wider evidence of a period in which Lewis was closer, culturally and politically, to Bergen than to Edinburgh.
The Chessmen are the most spectacular survival of that world, but they are far from the only one.
The Community Archive
Like the other comainn eachdraidh of the Outer Hebrides, the Uig Historical Society has assembled a community archive of images, objects and records of a depth that professional institutions rarely match, because the collecting was done by people who knew precisely whose photograph was whose and which croft each family held.
The archive covers the social, economic, Gaelic, military and religious life of the parish, and for anyone with Uig ancestry it is very often the single most productive resource anywhere, capable of tracing families house by house across generations.
Crofting, Clearance and the Land
Uig's crofting communities were reshaped by clearance and resettlement in the nineteenth century, when families were moved to make way for sheep and later pressed onto congested coastal holdings. The collection documents the crofting year — peat cutting, the shielings, sheep fanks and communal work — alongside the political struggle that followed: the agitation leading to the Crofters Act of 1886, and the land raids after the First World War when returning servicemen took direct action over the farms they had been promised.
It is rural social history with an unmistakably sharp edge.
Collections
Uig Museum holds the community collection of Comann Eachdraidh Ùig, covering all aspects of the social, economic, Gaelic, military and religious history of the parish of Uig from the Celtic and Norse periods to the present. Holdings comprise images, objects and written records, including township and family material supporting genealogical research.
Interpretation covers the Lewis Chessmen, discovered at Uig Bay near Ardroil in 1831 and now held principally by the British Museum and National Museum of Scotland; the parish's extensive Norse inheritance in place names and settlement; crofting, clearance and the land struggle; the evangelical revival of the 1820s and 1830s; the First World War and the Iolaire disaster of 1919; and emigration to Canada and beyond.
The Lewis Chessmen and Norse Uig
Interpretation of the 1831 Chessmen discovery at Uig Bay, their twelfth-century Norse manufacture and significance, set within the wider Scandinavian inheritance of the parish.
Life in the Parish of Uig
Displays on crofting and clearance, Gaelic language and religious life, the First World War and the Iolaire, and emigration, drawn from the society's images, objects and records.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.