Sandwick Stones

Between November 2025 and February 2026, I photographed all the gravestones in New Sandwick Cemetery. There are some 2,100 stones, showing over 4,000 names. 

Using the findagrave site, I have transcribed the data from inscriptions (if legible) onto an Excel database. Currently, I am adding the family connections - where possible. There are 150 gravestones with no or illegible inscriptions. 

The final item will be a full transcription of the inscription on all the gravestones - which will be a huge task. I intend to hand this over to Stornoway Historical Society once complete. 

Next item on the agenda then will be the Old Cemetery; this was transcribed in the 1990s, an invaluable body of work as inscriptions have now faded, sometimes into oblivion, under the influence of acid rain, sandblow and encroaching lichen. 

The Old Cemetery has 500 stones, showing 1,500 names. The New Cemetery is quite orderly, with stones standing in rows. The Old Cemetery is old, and stones are higgledy-piggledy across the precinct. I may have to use temporary little marker to show which ones I have covered. 

Beyond that, I'll move on to the other 20-odd burial grounds in Lewis and Harris. And an extension to Uist and Barra is in my mind. 

The picture is my favourite, taken in the New Cemetery on 20 December 2025, just 12 minutes before sunset.

Starmer - 2

I'm watching the political machinations in Westminster.
Not impressed.

Because the problem is not Reform UK. The problem is one that the government is failing to address, leaving a huge void that Nigel Farage's outfit are only too happy to fill with a lot of populist guff.

Whilst Keir Starmer is slowly losing power and influence, there is an unedifying spectacle of potential rivals posturing and jostling for position. One wrote a resignation letter with sulphuric acid.
Another is offered the seat of a sitting MP, who is resigning so they can fight a by-election. And
what would be the excoriating supreme irony? If Reform UK were to win the Makerfield by-election. Because they are sensing blood, if not already lapping it up. Yet, the underlying problem causing their popularity - remains unresolved.

Starmer

There is an issue in British society that is not being addressed by the government of the day. It did for the Conservatives, and the fact that Labour is now also tearing itself apart is indicative of this problem. A further pointer are the massive election wins by Reform UK in the local elections last week; also the large numbers of seats they gained at Holyrood and Cardiff Bay.

Reform UK is a single-issue protest party, focused on immigration. And whatever also ails Britain is deflected onto that issue. The matter of the small boats, it would appear, is the result of the actions of *one* individual gangmaster, who has (thus far) eluded capture by European authorities. From my perspective, the French authorities seem to be either powerless or unwilling to make a concerted effort to deal with the migrant camps between the Belgian border and Boulogne-sur-mer.

Throwing Keir Starmer under the bus will not resolve those issues. Any successor will be confronted by the same problems.

May I remind readers of pre-war Germany, where Adolf Hitler promised to deal with all the ills of German society, post-WW1 - by victimising one group in society. 

The flame is a warning from the past.