Na Dorsan
Na Dorsan
Designed by Marian Leven and Will Maclean and completed in 2024, na Dorsan is the 5th Memorial Cairn on the Isle of Lewis. Commissioned by the Galson Estate Trust, it celebrates the return of the estate to the community in 2007, after it had been ruthlessly cleared in 1863, like so many other townships, to make room for a sheep farm. Together with the other monuments in stone on the island, it acts as a site for gatherings or for contemplation and pays tribute to the bravery and survival of past generations and of Gaelic culture itself.
(Photography by Ralph Tonge)
The Iolaire
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The setting
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Names and Parishes in bronze
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The wreath
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Where the Iolaire sunk
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Opening ceremony
In the early hours of 1 January 1919, the naval yacht Iolaire was carrying home hundreds of sailors after the end of World War One, when the vessel was wrecked on a reef called the Beasts of Holm close to Stornoway harbour.
Commissioned by An Lanntair Arts Centre, this significant and much called for commemorative sculpture and its open air setting was designed by Will Maclean, Marian Leven and Arthur Watson. Installed in Holm looking out to where the Iolaire sank, the sculpture bears the names of those lost and the communities they came from. Also featured is a bronze depiction of the coiled heaving line referencing the heroism of John Finlay Macleod who swam ashore with a rope to rescue 40 of the 79 men who were saved, but 200 others tragically lost their lives. On the wall is a bronze wreath composed of maritime insignia, and wooden benches for quiet contemplation and healing are inserted into the stone.
100 years later to the day, the solemn unveiling took place in the presence of Prince Charles, Nicola Sturgeon and Rear Admiral John Weale, among invited guests, including the artists and the families of the survivors and those lost. A gathering of school children from the western isles was brought to witness the service and ceremony from a boat anchored at the place where the Iolaire sank. From here they threw symbolic red carnations into the sea.
Installations from 2006-2013
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2013: Waterlines, a sculpture in Kilkenny blue limestone commissioned from Will Maclean and Marian Leven by the University of Aberdeen for the area in front of the new library
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2013: An Suileachan, close to Uig on the West Coast, Isle of Lewis, conceived and designed by Will Maclean and Marian Leven, which won the Saltire Arts and Crafts in Architecture Award. This Cairn, like the three earlier monuments, is openly political, serving the community to reconfigure the history underlying their cultural worlds
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2008: Completion of Cairngorm View Point Commission with Arthur Watson
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2006: Completion of Crannghal, in bronze and granite by Will Maclean and sculptor Arthur Watson, for Sabhal more Ostaig Gaelic College, Isle of Skye
Lewis Monuments
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1996: Completion and opening of the Memorial Sculpture at Aignish, Isle of Lewis (scene of the Land Uprising in 1888)
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1996: Memorial Cairn to the Grias & Col Raiders, March 1919 (scene of the encounter between Crofters and Lord Leverhume at Gress Bridge)
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1994: Completion and opening of Cuimhneachain Nan Gaisgeach Memorial Cairn, Balallan, Isle of Lewis (scene of the Park Deer Raid 1887)
The striking trio of Lewis Monuments (or Memorial Cairns) was designed and overseen by Will Maclean and built in stone by Jim Crawford. The team were awarded the Scottish Natural Heritage Supreme Award for all three structures.