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Breacleit
| |
|---|---|
 Breacleit on Great Bernera | |
  Breacleit Location within the Outer Hebrides | |
| Language | Scottish Gaelic English |
| OS grid reference | NB160369 |
| Civil parish | |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ISLE OF LEWIS |
| Postcode district | HS2 |
| Dialling code | 01851 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Breacleit (or Roulanish;[1] Scottish Gaelic: Breacleit; Old Norse: Breiðiklettr) is the central village on Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Breaclete is within the parish of Uig.[2] Although the village name comes from a geographical feature rather than a steading it is generally believed to be an ancient settlement. The oldest building in the village is the thatched water mill by the shore of Loch Risay which was restored in the 1990s. It was formerly a tiny crofting and fishing settlement of just 12 crofts surrounding the natural harbour of Loch Beag but crofting has now ceased and holiday homes have taken over. The earliest clearly mapped reference is on Murdoch MacKenzie's first Admiralty chart surveyed in 1748. In 1851 J.M. MacKenzie, the Chamberlain to the estate owner Sir James Matheson, proposed that all the tenants of the village were to be evicted and sent to North America on the emigrant ship the SS Marquis of Stafford. This plan was not fully carried through however but it still had a great effect on the village leaving it with a population of just three families. This population was later supplemented through evictions elsewhere notably the clearances of Hacklete and Barragloum villages in the south of Great Bernera.
- ^ Hebridean Connections
- ^ "Details of Breaclete". Scottish Places. Retrieved 27 December 2014.