The Western Isles - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 309

people of Harris. His most grandiose plans were drawn up for Leverburgh (see p.315),
but he also purchased an old Norwegian whaling station in Bunavoneadar (Bun Abhàinn
Eadarra) in 1922, built a spinning mill at Geocrab and began the construction of four
roads. Financial difficulties, a slump in the tweed industry and the lack of market for
whale products meant that none of the schemes was a wholehearted success, and when he
died in 1925 the plug was pulled on all of them by his executors.
Since the Leverhulme era, unemployment has been a constant problem in Harris.
Crofting continues on a small scale, supplemented by the Harris Tweed industry, though
the main focus of this has, in fact, shifted to Lewis. Fishing continues on Scalpay , while
the rest of the population gets by on whatever employment is available: roadworks,
crafts, hunting and fishing and, of course, the one growth industry, tourism.

6

Tarbert (An Tairbeart)
Sheltered in a green valley on the narrow isthmus, TARBERT (An Tairbeart) is the largest
settlement on Harris and a wonderful place to arrive by boat. The port's mountainous
backdrop is impressive, and the town is attractively laid out on steep terraces sloping
up from the dock.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION TARBEART

By ferry There are CalMac car ferries to and from Uig on
Skye (Mon-Sat 1-2 daily; 1hr 45min).
By bus Tarbert is served by regular buses from and to
Stornoway, as well as a few other places.
Destinations Hushinish (schooldays Mon-Fri 2-3 daily;
school holidays Tues & Fri 3 daily; 45min); Leverburgh
(Mon-Sat 6-8 daily; 45min-1hr); Leverburgh via the Bays

(Mon-Sat 2-4 daily; 1hr); Rhenigdale (by request
T 01463 731280; Mon-Sat 2 daily; 30min); Scalpay
(Mon-Sat 4-6 daily; 20min).
Tourist o ce Harris's tourist o ce is close to the ferry
terminal (April-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-6pm; open to greet the
evening ferry; T 01859 502011).

HARRIS TWEED
Far from being a picturesque cottage industry, as it's sometimes presented, the production
off Harris Tweed is vital to the local economy, with a well-organized and unionized
workforce. Traditionally the tweed was made by women, from the wool of their own sheep,
to provide clothing for their families, using a 2500-year-old process. Each woman was
responsible for plucking the wool by hand, washing and scouring it, dyeing it with lichen,
heather flowers or ragwort, carding (smoothing and straightening the wool, often adding
butter to grease it), spinning and weaving. Finally the cloth was dipped in stale urine and
“waulked” by a group of women, who beat the cloth on a table to soften and shrink it while
singing Gaelic waulking songs. Harris Tweed was originally made all over the islands, and
was known simply as clò mór (big cloth).
In the mid-nineteenth century, Catherine Murray, Countess of Dunmore , who owned a
large part of Harris, started to sell surplus cloth to her aristocratic friends; she then sent two
sisters from Strond (Srannda) to Paisley to learn the trade. On their return, they formed the
genesis of the modern industry, which continues to serve as a vital source of employment,
though demand (and therefore employment levels) can fluctuate wildly as fashions change.
To earn the o cial Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) trademark of the Orb and the Maltese
Cross - taken from Lady Dunmore's coat of arms - the fabric has to be hand-woven on the
Outer Hebrides from 100 percent pure new Scottish wool, while the other parts of the
manufacturing process must take place only in the local mills.
The main mills are actually in Carloway and Shawbost, in Lewis, where the wool is dyed,
carded and spun. In the last few decades, there has been a revival of traditional tweed-making
techniques, with several small producers following old methods, using indigenous plants and
bushes to dye the cloth: yellow comes from rocket and broom; green from heather; grey and
black from iris and oak; and, most popular of all, reddish brown from crotal, a flat grey lichen
scraped off rocks.