Swainbost ( gd, Suaineabost) is a village on the

Isle of Lewis The Isle of Lewis ( gd, Eilean Leòdhais) or simply Lewis ( gd, Leòdhas, ) is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as ...

in the district of

Ness Ness or NESS may refer to: Places Australia * Ness, Wapengo, a heritage-listed natural coastal area in New South Wales United Kingdom * Ness, Cheshire, England, a village * Ness, Lewis, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK * Cuspate ...

, in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

, Scotland. The name Swainbost meaning ''Sweins steading'' is of

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

derivation. The settlement is situated in the parish of

Barvas Barvas (Scottish Gaelic: ''Barabhas'' or ''Barbhas'', ) is a settlement, community and civil parish on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. It developed around a road junction. The A857 and A858 meet at the southern end of Barvas. North is the road ...

. According to Ronald Black, Swainbost was re-settled during the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

in 1842. The island's

Anglo-Scottish Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...

landlord had expected the crofters evicted from Uig to emigrate and only reluctantly granted them land at Swainbost to avert the threat of violence. At the shore, there is a large depression called Suaineabost Sands which displays glacier activities and is run through by a river.

Teampull Pheadair

The remains of the church of Saint Peter, ''Teampull Pheadair'', are located north of the settlement. It exsited since at least the 1600s and was probably restored and upgraded in 1722 when it became the meeting house for the north part of the Ness parish. In 1795 the church was enlarged and re-roofed but with the building of the new parliamentary church at Cross in the late 1820s the church fell out of use. However, the cemetery continued in use, with the stones from the church being used as grave markers and burials continued even after 1922, when the present Habost graveyard was built. There are many memorial stones to those lost in the Lolaire tragedy of 1919. It is estimated that the graveyard has more than 4,000 graves, but only 114 bear inscribed memorials, the earliest decipherable tombstone is of Alexander Murray from 1857, after the church had fallen out of use. The site is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Teampall Thòmais

Next to ''Teampull Pheadair'' are the ruins of ''Teampall Thòmais,'' the 'Church of St Thomas'. A local tradition states that the stones from ''Teampall Thòmais'' were used to build ''Teampull Pheadair.'' A

geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the E ...

by archaeologists in 2007 found that there were traces of build that was 16m by 8m at ''Teampall Thòmais.''

People

Aonghas Caimbeul Aonghas Caimbeul (9 October 1903 – 28 January 1982), alias Am Puilean, was a Scottish Gaelic Bard, war poet, and memoirist. Early life Caimbeul was born on 9 October 1903 at Swainbost, Ness, Lewis, Ness, Isle of Lewis, where his family had liv ...

, alias ''

Am Puilean AM or Am may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * A minor, a minor scale in music * ''A.M.'' (Chris Young album) * ''A.M.'' (Wilco album) * ''AM'' (Abraham Mateo album) * ''AM'' (Arctic Monkeys album) * AM (musician), American musician ...

'' (1903-1982),

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

war poet A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

, and award-winning memoirist.Ronald Black (1998), ''An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse'', pages 757-758.

References

External links

Canmore - Lewis, Habost, Chain Home Beam Radar Station site recordCanmore - Swainbost, Standing Stone site record
Villages in the Isle of Lewis {{WesternIsles-geo-stub