Breacleit is the central village on Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Breaclete is within the parish of Uig. Although the village name comes from a geographical feature rather than a steading it is generally believed to be an ancient settlement. The oldest building in the village is the thatched water mill by the shore of Loch Risay which was restored in the 1990s. It was formerly a tiny crofting and fishing settlement of just 12 crofts surrounding the natural harbour of Loch Beag but crofting has now ceased and holiday homes have taken over. The earliest clearly mapped reference is on Murdoch MacKenzie's first Admiralty chart surveyed in 1748. In 1851 J.M. MacKenzie, the Chamberlain to the estate owner Sir James Matheson, proposed that all the tenants of the village were to be evicted and sent to North America on the emigrant ship the SS Marquis of Stafford. This plan was not fully carried through however but it still had a great effect on the village leaving it with a population of just three families. This population was later supplemented through evictions elsewhere notably the clearances of Hacklete and Barragloum villages in the south of Great Bernera.
Literature
In 1939 the author Neil Gunn stayed in Breaclete and wrote some of his essays for the book Highland Pack there. His experience of staying with Dr PJ Macleod and leaving Loch Beag in the fishing vessel "Rhoda" for the Flannan Isles provide an invaluable insight into pre-war Hebridean life. This experience was also the inspiration for the most critically acclaimed writing in his most famous work. Also of literary interest are the writings of the former schoolmaster John Nicolson Macleod who lived in the village in the early part of the twentieth century. Writing under the pseudonym Alasdair Mòr, his weekly series of highly entertaining articles in the Stornoway Gazette called "Litir à Beàrnaraigh" were collected into a book "Litrichean Alasdair Mhòir" in 1932. These essays outline the distinctive wit, character, courage and craftsmanship of the people of the village and the island of Bernera. John Nicolson Macleod while living in Breaclet was also responsible for compiling the definitive collection of Gaelic poetry from the Isle of Lewis simply titled “Bàrdachd Leòdhais”. This undertaking finally published in 1916 took him thirteen years to collect. This was done through oral transcript from various sources all over the island which then had a population of over 30,000 accessed by very backward infrastructure. The completed work features poetry from three villagers from Breaclet: Donald MacDonald and Angus MacDonald from croft Number 12 and Angus MacKenzie from croft Number 8. The publication was re-published in 1955.
Notable sons
Breaclete produced a golden generation of talent in the early twentieth century with most families producing at least one university graduate in addition to regular duxes of the Nicolson Institute.
Breaclete is today home to a small museum, mini-mart & off licence, Bernera School, Bernera Post Office, Lochs-in-Bernera Church, former Free Kirk, War Memorial, Bernera Community Centre with café, petrol station, recreation ground, fire station and doctor's surgery. Many of the older buildings were constructed from Lewisian gneiss hewn from the nearby quarry of Buaile Chruidh. The village has about 35 houses with the oldest 'whitehouse' dating from 1911.
