OS1/27/25/18

Continued entries/extra info

(Name as written) Bereasaidh (Various modes of spelling) (Authorities for those Spellings) Beurasie, Murdoch McDonald, Bereasaidh J Morrison Bereasaidh John McKay Bereasaidh Allan Ross.
(Situation and Description) In the western side of the plan, 45 chains W. of the letter U of Uig parish name and 40 chains S.E. of Old Hill Island. A steep rocky island, at the mouth of Loch Roag and on it there are remains or ruins of 6 or 8 houses or huts (A. M. O.) its shore is bold rocky and precipitous & difficult to ascend and there is no possibility of landing on it except in calm weather, The pasture is green and good for sheep, a few of which are yearly fed on it. The best landing place is at An Acarsaid, where there is a natural basin scooped out of the rock. This island was the retreat of the celebrated Outlaw McLeod, in the time of James V & who after baffling all the attempts of the Royal Yeomen at length succumed to the barbarous stratagem of the McKenzies who placed the wife and family of McLeod , and each of his followers on a low water rock, within his view, and made it optional with him either to surrender or see them perish within an hour. he chose to save the lives of so many helpless beings in preference to his own wild freedom, and ultimately it is said became a French Refugee. Tradition is not very explicit as to the cause of his outlawry but it is thought that it arose out of the successful though unjust claim made by McKenzie Laird of [E]ientail on the law property to which McLeod was thought to be the rightful heir, however it appears that McLeod and his two or three followers [were] not by any means then known to the Lewis people defend themselves for one hour on Berasy against even nine or ten men