25817: Lemreway School, Pairc

Lemreway Public School was established as a result of the Education Act of 1872, which stipulated that the 101 children in the area were entitled to an education. The school also served population of Orinsay, when it was resettled. Previously there had been a school established by the Ladies Highland Association, which operated circa 1860 to 1881 in what is now the Mission Hall, and prior to that, it seems there was a Gaelic Society school in the village.

The new school opened on 7 June 1881 under the headmastership of Donald Maciver, Bayble, who was a bard of note and composed An Ataireachd Ard.

The first school log entry reads:

This school opened today for the first time by Donald MacIver, Certificated Teacher of the Third Class. The teacher after spending most of the day finding out the extent of the children’s attainments, finds that the work in future will be very elementary. Of the 25 present only 12 know the alphabet properly, a few of these can read fairly Number 2 and Number 3 Royal Readers. Only 1 boy and 2 girls can write and the acquirements in arithmetic are equally backward.

The early teachers were:

Donald Maciver, Assistant Teacher at Bayble School, appointed to Lemreway 1 July 1881, left October 1883 for Breasclete and later Bayble.

Murdo Macleod, Kershader Public School, from 1883 until his death on 12 August 1896

Miss Annie Macrae, Feale Industrial Seminary, December 1896 to March 1899

Miss Johanna Macleod, Assistant Teacher at Tolsta Public School

John D Mitchell, Lochgilphead, March 1904 to August 1905

John Hastie, Bernera Public School, Harris, from 1905.

The school had a roll of 84 in 1914, and 35 in 1958. It also served Orinsay after that village was resettled in 1921. The school finally closed in 1971, just before the new Pairc School at Gravir open in 1973.

See also the school pictures.

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Lemreway School, 1933

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Lemreway Schoolmaster and his wife

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