Remembering the police raids on Scottish island's boozy 'bothan' culture

Nights in the Eoropie Bothan in Ness, on the Isle of Lewis, are still talked about

They were late-night drinking dens set up in isolated bothans where the authorities, for decades, did not tread.

But a police raid on the Eoropie Bothan in Ness, north Lewis, brought the culture of long nights of alcohol and music in the basic shelters to nationwide attention almost 50 years ago.

The Eoropie Bothan, Ness, Isles of Lewis, pictured in 1977 following a court case held after huge amounts of alcohol were found at the shelter. PIC: The Scotsman. | The Scotsman

This month, a play has been staged in Ness that revisited the night in 1976 that 13 officers entered the bothan to find 22 men, four women and a mighty stash of alcohol, which included 415 unopened cans of lager, 11 empty bottles of whisky and another 14 bottles that were yet to be touched.

Four 11-gallon containers of beer were also found. On the wall was the sign ‘Ceud Failte’ - or 100 welcomes.

A bucket including 1,133 can pull rings were also seized during the raid, which took place around 1.25am, as well as a money box containing £8.18 1/2p and a jar with a further £5.14 1/2p.

The prosecution claimed this was money collected on the night from the illegal sale of alcohol in an unlicensed premises, although the defence lawyer said this could have been money for a sweepstake on a game at Ness FC.

Adabroc in Ness, Isle of Lewis, where another bothan was used for late-night parties in the 'dry' area of the island. PIC: geograph.org/John Lucas. | geograph.org/John Lucas

All the items were presented in evidence in the subsequent trial at Stornoway Sheriff Court of five men accused of breaches of licensing laws, a hearing so in demand that extra chairs had to be found to accommodate all those keen for a place in the public gallery.

Two men were found guilty and a third fined £25 for Contempt of Court after the sheriff found a “tissue of lies” running through the trial. When one witness was asked how a person got into a bothan, he said to just open the door. When asked about the definition of a bothan, he said he only knew the Gaelic Bible described it as a shelter.

The trial heard the raid followed tip-offs from members of the public about the bothans, which were reportedly set up as large areas of Ness were declared ‘dry’ in the 1930s. Two letters written by concerned islanders were read out in court by Chief Inspector Allan Macleod, who led the raid.

One said: “The purses of wives and mothers know that whole wages are spent there.”

READ MORE: ‘I found everything shut on a Sunday on a Scottish island’

Another added: “I think it is about time someone told you about the awful carry on that is going on in Ness. Nobody seems to care what is going on in bothans. You know they are breaking the law.”

The Eoropie Bothan, which stood on common grazings and was sometimes used for regular community meetings, was revisited ahead of the play and subsequent ceilidh staged at the Taigh Dhonnchaidh arts and music centre in Ness.

Another bothan visited ahead of the production, which was run as part of its Fèis week, was Adabroc. It was named during the 1976 court case as another where the gatherings were held, along with others at Cross, Habost, Swainbost and Borve.

Murdo John Mackenzie, two-times National Mod gold medallist, in an earlier interview with Fios community newspaper in the north of Lewis, said: “At New Years, all the boys would be listening at the door [of the bothans], sometimes they would let us in. We didn’t have the benefit of tutors, you know, you just watched other people basically in the bothans. We lost a lot of culture in Ness when we lost the bothans.”

The opening of the Cross Inn and the Ness FC Social Club led to the bothan culture fading out in the 1980s, according to accounts.

After the case, the procurator fiscal pushed for six bothans to be pulled down, partly due to the draw of under-age drinkers, but a report to planners called for three to be saved - including Eoropie.

Port of Ness, Ness, Isle of Lewis. The area was home to at least six bothans taken over for late-night drinking given the lack of licensed premises. PIC: Chmee/CC | Chmee/Cc

An investigation found the landlord of two of the bothans - Adabroc and Habost, a traditional blackhouse - was Bruce Millan, then Secretary of State for Scotland, given the shelters stood on land belonging to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. The 500-acre Cross-Skigersta estate was taken over by the government after the First World War.

As tenders went out for the proposed demolition, the words “No Surrender” were daubed on the Eoropie wall, with the “bothaneers” now revelling in their notoriety. One offered to pull down the bothan for £99,000 - plus police protection.

The Scotsman reported in October 1977 the local Free Church minister supported the survival of the Eoropie given they were preferrable to regular licensed premises, given they did not operate on a Sunday.

The 1976 trial was not the first time the Eoropie Bothan nights had come to national attention. In 1956, the Stornoway Gazette got into a spat with the London-based Daily National over its reporting of a local resident’s attempt to shut down Eoropie Bothan.

Under a front-page story headlined ‘The Battle for Eoropie Bothan’, the Gazette condemned the article, written by a reporter called John Macnab. It said: “Our complaint is that the article was inaccurate in detail, incomplete and biased. We might add that the type of journalism it represents is parasitical.

“The article was inaccurate in several respects, but notably in representing the habit of organised drinking in bothies as a ‘centuries-old’ Lewis tradition. The truth is that the trouble over the Eoropie bothan, and other bothans in the island, is a result of a comparatively recent change in our social habits.

“The Daily Herald also says that the bothans are not licensed ‘and do not need to be’. That is a very dubious proposition. It may not be easy to prove an illegality, but anyone who accepts the Daily Herald’s opinion as correct might find himself in queer street.”