In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Lochmaddy like this:
Lochmaddy, a village and a sea-loch in North Uist island, Outer Hebrides, Inverness-shire. The village, on the W shore of the sea-loch, 19½ miles W of Vaternish Point in Skye and 65 SW by S of Stornoway, communicates regularly with Skye and the Scottish main. land by steamers, and is a centre of trade and commerce for the middle and southern portions of the Outer Hebrides. ...
It comprises some poor huts, an inn, a sheriff's residence, and a court-house and prison, at considerable distances one from another; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Caledonian Bank, and a considerably frequented harbour. The sea-loch, opening on the E from the Little Minch, and expanding from an entrance only 1¼ mile wide to an interior width of 2¾ miles, penetrates the land to a length of 5½ miles, and includes, not one harbour, but many harbours, safe, capacious, and wanting nothing but sufficient trade to render them one of the finest groups of natural harbours in the world. About ¼ mile inward from the sea are two remarkable isolated rocks of columnar basalt, 100 feet high, called Maddy-More and Maddy-Grisioch, which serve as marks to mariners. The country around is all low, flat, and peaty country; and Loch Maddy itself is so beset with innumerable islets and intersected by multitudes of little peninsulas, as to present a perfect labyrinth of land and water. It does not cover more than 9 square miles with its waters, but its aggregate coast-line can hardly be less than 200 miles.
Lochmaddy through time
Lochmaddy is now part of Eilean Siar district. Click here for graphs and data of how Eilean Siar has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Lochmaddy itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Lochmaddy, in Eilean Siar and Inverness Shire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21519
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
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