whats the Isle of Lewis like?!.

[baldowrie]

I have, and still having, the same problem with school and religion as Stoney had.

My boy got sent of the classroom because he is not religious and he said.........


CHRISTMAS

The teacher felt it wrong as he not religious and it is a religious word....yep she is also a bigot!

[mrsflibble]

OMFG!!! I'd be hunted by villagers brandishing torches!!!

[TheCroft]

Very beautiful and kind of weird. There's a lot of religious (Christian) fundamentalism there, it's a very strange atmosphere, no-one works on a Sunday and a kid I spoke to believed firmly that the dinosaurs are a lie to test his faith.(and this is apparently even taught in school) This was a few years ago now, and things might have changed, but I don't think they have. I'd visit again, I might even consider living there now, but it's not somewhere where I'd have liked my kids educated.

The education your kids would receive on the Island of Lewis would be excellent. Something seen every week in the local papers university graduation pages. I can also assure you that Creationism is not part of the syllabus!

I refer you to the fifth year staying on rates and exam results for the main secondary school The Nicholson Institute and the Western Isle as a whole. You will see it sits much higher in comparison to the rest Scotland.

http://www.scottishschoolsonline.gov.uk ... ID=6233139

And the Isle of Lewis is a beautiful place. It's also a place steeped in history and tradition and if you want to live there then you really have to develop a respect and understanding for the place and the people. Sundays, or the Sabbath is hugely important to this. The woman mentioned previously who hung her washing out that fateful day wasn't heinously breaking some 11th commandment, she was showing an ignorance of local custom, culture and tradition. Quite what else she did to further the scorn of her neighbours I can't say but I don't know many folk over there who would take a wee newbie slip-up like that to heart.

I think a big part of the "incomer" issue is local people watching generation after generation of their family leave the island to be educated and work and never to return because of the poor island economy and lack of jobs. And at the same time seeing them being replaced by non-locals with their hearts set on living The Good Life, setting up twee art n craft shops and failing to contribute meaningfully to the retention of the island's culture (gaelic, crofting, fishing, weaving etc) or increasing it's prosperity.

The personality of the Leodhasach is a complicated one typified by a dryness of humour that comes from eaking out a life on a rock in the back of beyond. But they're a generous, tolerant lot despite what the minority of Wee Frees might suggest. I spent a week lambing alongside a Brummie chap and two born and bred islanders last month who were the best of pals, united as they were in good, honest hard work.

So if you plan to move there with the intention of buying a house, raising a few chooks and painting celtic designs on pebbles for a living then don't be surprised if you're not embraced with open arms by your new neighbours. But if you embrace the islands and learn why the place is so special, the traditions, the relationship to the land and the struggle to maintain an identity in the face of economic hardships and decades of emigration of it's youngsters...then you'll have no problems. Just remember to hang your knickers out on Saturday.

(BTW you'll find most folk there are 21st century human beings with all the trappings of good old western society. The pubs are open on Sunday in Stornoway, you can get most of your shopping needs from Engebrets and even catch a plane off the island on the seventh day if it all gets a bit too much...)