Editing Isle of Lewis (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of the Outer Hebrides}}
The earliest evidence of human habitation on Lewis is found in [[peat]] samples which indicate that about 8,000 years ago much of the native woodland was torched to make way for browse plants to allow [[deer]] to browse. The earliest [[archaeology|archaeological]] remains date from about 5,000 years ago. At that time, people began to settle in permanent farms rather than following their herds. The small houses of these people have been found throughout the [[Western Isles]]; in particular, at [[Dail Mòr]], [[Carloway]]. The more striking great monuments of this period are the temples and communal burial cairns at places like [[Calanais]] (English: Callanish).
[[File:Calanais Standing Stones 20090610 01.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Callanish Stones]]]] 
About 500 BC, island society moved into the [[Iron Age]]. The buildings became larger and more prominent, culminating in the [[broch]]s – circular, dry-stone towers belonging to the local chieftains – which testify to the uncertain nature of life then. The best remaining example of a broch in Lewis is at Dùn Chàrlabhaigh (English: [[Dun Carloway]]). The [[Gaels|Scots]] arrived during the first centuries AD, bringing the [[Scottish Gaelic]] language with them.<ref name="history1">Macdonald, D. (1978). ''Lewis: A History of the Island''. Edinburgh: Gordon Wright</ref> As Christianity began to spread through the islands in the 6th and later centuries, following [[Saint Columba|Columban]] missionaries, Lewis was inhabited by the [[Picts]].<ref name="history1"/>

[[File:UigChessmen SelectionOfKings.jpg|thumb|left|Two kings and two queens from the [[Lewis chessmen]] at the [[British Museum]]]]In the 9th century AD, the [[Vikings]] began to settle on Lewis, after years of raiding from the sea. The Norse invaders intermarried with local people and abandoned their pagan beliefs. At that time, rectangular buildings began to supersede round ones, following the Scandinavian style. Lewis became part of the [[Kingdom of Mann and the Isles]], an offshoot of Norway. The [[Lewis chessmen]], found on the island in 1831, date from the time of [[Viking]] rule.<ref>Madden, F. (1832). "Historical remarks on the introduction of the game of chess into Europe and on the ancient chessmen discovered in the Isle of Lewis." ''Archaeologia'' 24, 203–291.</ref>The people were called the [[Norse Gaels]] or Gall-Ghàidheil (lit. "Foreigner Gaels"), reflecting their mixed Scandinavian/Gaelic background, and probably their bilingual speech.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/factfile/cultureheritage/history/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017033104/http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/factfile/cultureheritage/history/index.htm|title=Heritage History Factfile|archive-date=17 October 2007}}</ref> The Norse language persists in many island placenames and some personal names to this day, although the latter are fairly evenly spread across the [[Gàidhealtachd]].

Lewis (and the rest of the Western Isles) became part of Scotland once more in 1266: under the [[Treaty of Perth]] it was ceded by the Kingdom of Norway. Under Scottish rule, the [[Lord of the Isles|Lordship of the Isles]] emerged as the most important power in north-western Scotland by the 14th century. The Lords of the Isles were based on [[Islay]], but controlled all of the [[Hebrides]]. They were descended from [[Somerled]] (Somhairle) Mac Gillibride, a Gall-Ghàidheil lord who had held the Hebrides and West Coast two hundred years earlier. Control of Lewis itself was initially exercised by the Macleod clan, but after years of feuding and open warfare between and even within local clans, the lands of [[Clan MacLeod]] were forfeited to the Scottish Crown in 1597 and were awarded by [[King James VI]] to a group of [[Lowland]] colonists known as the [[Fife adventurers]] in an attempt to [[anglicise]] the islands. However the adventurers were unsuccessful, and possession passed to the Mackenzies of Kintail in 1609, when Coinneach, Lord MacKenzie, bought out the [[Scottish Lowlands|lowlanders]].<ref name="history1"/>

[[File:Admiralty-yacht-HMS-Iolaire-ship-Amalthaea-1908.jpg|thumb|right| [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] yacht {{ship|HMY|Iolaire||6}} (named as ''Amalthaea'' in 1908 photo).]]Following the [[Jacobite rising of 1745|1745 rebellion]], and [[Bonnie Prince Charlie|Prince Charles Edward Stewart]]'s flight to France, the use of Scottish Gaelic was discouraged, rents were demanded in cash rather than kind, and the wearing of folk dress was made illegal. Emigration to the New World increasingly became an escape for those who could afford it during the latter half of the century. In 1844 Lewis was bought by [[Sir James Matheson]], co-founder of [[Jardine Matheson]], but subsequent famine and changing land use forced vast numbers off their lands and increased the flood of emigrants again. Paradoxically, those who remained became ever more congested{{clarify|date=October 2022}} and impoverished, as large tracts of arable land were set aside for sheep, deerstalking or grouse shooting. Agitation for land resettlement became acute on Lewis during the economic slump of the 1880s, with several [[land raid]]s (in common with Skye, Uist and Tiree); this quietened down as the island economy recovered.

During the First World War, thousands of islanders served in the forces, many losing their lives, including 208 naval reservists from the island who were returning home after the war when the Admiralty yacht {{ship|HMY|Iolaire||6}} sank within sight of [[Stornoway]] harbour. Many servicemen from Lewis served in the [[Royal Navy]] and the [[Merchant Navy]] during the Second World War, and again many people died. Afterwards, many more inhabitants emigrated to the Americas and mainland Scotland.

In May 1918 the Isle of Lewis was purchased by the soap magnate [[William Hesketh Lever|Lord Leverhulme]], who intended to make Stornoway an industrial town and build a fish cannery. His plans were initially popular, but his opposition to land resettlement led to further land raids, especially around the farms of [[Coll, Lewis|Coll]], [[Gress]] and [[Tong, Lewis|Tong]]. These raids, commemorated in monuments in several villages,<ref name="history1"/> were ultimately successful, as the government was prepared to take legal action in support of land resettlement. Faced with this, Leverhulme gave up on his plans for Lewis and concentrated his efforts on Harris, where the town of [[Leverburgh]] takes his name.

=== Historical sites ===
The Isle of Lewis has a variety of locations of historical and archaeological interest, including:
* [[Callanish Stones]] associated with the [[Clan Morrison]] among others
* [[Dun Carloway]] Broch
* [[Iron Age]] houses near Bostadh ([[Great Bernera]])
* The [[Garenin]] blackhouse village in [[Carloway]] and the Black House at [[Arnol]]
* [[Bragar]] whale bone arch
* [[Columba|St Columba]]'s church in [[Aignish]]
* [[Teampull Mholuaidh]] in [[Ness, Outer Hebrides|Ness]]
* [[Clach an Truiseil]] [[monolith]]
* Clach an Tursa, [[Carloway]]
* [[Bonnie Prince Charlie]]'s Monument, Arnish
* [[Lews Castle]]
* [[Butt of Lewis]] cliffs and [[Butt of Lewis Lighthouse]]
* [[Dùn Èistean]], a small island which is the ancestral home of the Lewis [[Clan Morrisons]] of the [[Ness, Outer Hebrides|Ness]] area
* [[Ui Church]], burial place of the Clan Chiefs MacLeod of Lewis and MacKenzie
There are also numerous lesser stone circles and the remains of five further [[broch]]s.