Week 5

The weather this week has been just awful. We have had gale force winds, hail, etc. Between all this we usually take the dog for a walk somewhere nearby, or if it is particularly bad, drive to the woods about 5 mins drive away. One walk takes us up the road to a memorial to the Drs Macleod.

I say that in the plural as both husband and wife were Doctors here and then also their son. Life must have been very different then as there were no causeways joining the islands so travel was a lot harder than it is today.
Dr Alexander Macleod practised medicine here in North Uist between 1932 - 2000. In the early days transport was by horseback, gig or by boat. He introduced, in 1933, the Air Ambulance service to take seriously ill patients off the island to Glasgow Hospital.
His wife Julia, also a GP, covered for her husband when he was on call in remote areas or was off the islands for meetings. She set up and ran the Red Cross Branch here from 1939 sending parcels to Uist troops overseas and in prisoners of war camps.
Dr John, their eldest son, took over the practice in 1974 when his father retired.

Looking back to Clachan an Luib

This is an example of the sky when bad weather is approaching.

On a good day it can look like the above photo.
Later this week whilst out walking the dog we were invited into a lovely old croft cottage to have a cup of tea and chat about how life was here back in the late 60's. Really interesting and nice to meet some more local Clachan residents.