797: Hacklete, Lewis

From Place-names of Lewis and Harris by D Maciver F.E.I.S.

Tacleit or Hacleit : har clettr, high ridge.

Hacklete township is located in the south west of Bernera. The road into the village is very winding with lochs and shoreline to be circumvented. Before 1851 most of the area was a farm occupied by a tacksman; a small area, Druim a Ghearraidh, had a few houses and another part near the Bernera Bridge is called Ballaglom (qv).

All tenants were cleared in 1851 to make a more viable sheep farm. In 1880 the Croir tenants asked for the village to be lotted to them. It has good grazing and peat banks on the common grazing. On an island in Loch Bharabhat, connected by a stone causeway, there are good remains of a Dun.

The four crofts in Ballaglom at the present time are actually Nos 1 to 4 Hacklete. The families in Barraglom lived in the following crofts:

Macaulay: crofts 1, 4

Martin: 2

Morrison: 3

Macinnes: 3

Macdonald: 2, 3

Families in Hacklete lived in the following crofts:

Macaulay: crofts 5, 10, 11, 19

Macdonald: 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 20

Mackenzie: 5, 9, 12, 13

Maciver: 9, 11, 14

Martin: 17