By Mike Smylie

For a tiny Outer Hebridean island with a small population, Grimsay has had an incredible amount of boats locally built for the lobster fishery. In 1846 the census showed 269 inhabitants, and this had reduced to 169 by 2011, despite the building of a causeway connecting the island to North Uist and Benbecula. There’s just one circular road around which isn’t much more than a mile in length, nevertheless there were at one time in the early 20th century three boatbuilders working at Kenary (Ceannaridh) on the southwest side of the island. These were all members of the Stewart family, renowned local builders who were descendants of the first Stewart who moved from Argyllshire to the island in the 1840s. Five generations later and they are said to have built in excess of 1,000 boats. The last survivor, Charles Stewart was still building a decade or so ago when I last visited him.
These open boats, differing in length but not over 22 feet, were all specifically built for the local lobster fishery that was centred on the nearby Monach Isles (Heisker), a small group of two main islands and a few offshoots that lie a couple of miles west of North Uist. To get there, the Grimsay boats had to navigate through the waters of Oitir Mhor, the channel leading out into the Atlantic where they would always encounter a stiff surf. Their design allowed them to ride over this, sail to the islands with enough fishing gear for a week’s fishing, haul in creels and return with their catch. They were rigged with two gaff sails, and their fishermen would sometimes race each other home on the Saturday. Whilst working they left the mizzen mast ashore.
As usual motorisation had its impact, bringing a fuller hull shape and a transom (geola), although some boats retained the double-ended (eathar) influence that is longstanding hereabout. They were renowned for their seaworthiness , their lightness and fineness, especially at entry.
The boat shown here is the Lily, CY173, which was drawn languishing in a bay on the north side of the island in 2001. Since then, boatbuilding has recommenced on the island and a fishing industry survives although the route out to the Monach Isles is today blocked by the causeway that brought so much hope to the island in 1960. Many of the boats working from the new harbour at Kallin are deepsea vessels although a healthy fleet of the small Grimsay boats remain moored in the inner harbour and work creels, mostly on a part-time basis.
It’s worth mentioning that the Barra boats working long-lines around the southern end of the Outer Hebrides are similar in shape and are presumed to evolved through influence from Grimsay. The Stewart tradition, then, has travelled long and wide, from the far reaches of the southwest highlands to the far-flung outposts in the western islands.