Human settlement in Scotland
Tong (Scottish Gaelic: Tunga from Old Norse: Tunga) is a village on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, 4 miles (6 kilometres) northeast of the main town of Stornoway on the B895 road to Back and Tolsta.[1] The population of the village is 527 (2001 census). Fishing forms part of the local economy.[2]
The mainland of Scotland is 40 nautical miles (75 kilometres) away via a two-hour ferry ride.[3]
History
Until the 13th century, Lewis – and Tong with it – was part of Norway. Fishing, farming and weaving made up Tong's economy by the 1800s.[3] Later in the century, landlords throughout much of Lewis ousted their tenants to install sheep farms and deer forests, industries which used huge swathes of land with few farmers.[4] Many families moved to Tong, causing "horrific overcrowding."[3] Scottish historian James Hunter quotes a mainland land manager's 1828 description: “It is worse than anything I ever saw in Donegal [in Ireland] where I always considered human wretchedness to have reached its very acme.”[3]
Between 1919 and 1921, Tong, along with nearby Coll and Gress, was the scene of several land raids. (See the Coll, Lewis article for more).
During the land raids, men raided estates with absentee landlords by planting crops and marking out farms on land used for sheep herding. Tong in particular was considered particularly radical; John Maclean, a Scottish socialist, who visited the area after World War I, "saw it as a "hotbed of insurrection" during a visit after World War I, and even through the 1990s, Tong’s residents were called "Bolshiveeks" by a Stornoway slang dictionary.[3]
Tong's economy struggled in the early 1900s – crops were failing, the herring industry lost its main clients due to American Prohibition and the Russian Revolution, the 1918 flu epidemic killed many, and World War I killed thousands more of Hebridean men and the government failed to keep its promises of land for the survivors, pulverizing the summer social seasons where young people found their future spouses over putting the sheep out to graze. Though emigration was long a trend on Lewis, all these factors increased the rate significantly.[3]
Circa 2016, Tong received much attention due to the candidacy of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose mother was born in Tong. The land nearby is described as flat and marshy with fields of peat, with fishing and sheep farming still parts of the local economy.[3]
Facilities
The village has a community centre with a football pitch and a primary school. Its religious establishments include a Free Church of Scotland mission house and a Scottish Episcopal Church meeting house. On 6 August 2014 The Tong Shop (Bùth Thunga) opened in the former Episcopal Church building. The shop is open from Monday to Saturday and it sells a range of essentials such as milk and bread, as well as local produce such as vegetables and Stornoway black pudding.
Culture and sport
Every July the Lewis Highland Games and Western Isles Strongest man are held at the community centre with heavy events such as tossing the caber, Highland dancing, bagpipe competitions and other attractions taking place on the football pitch. The Lewis Highland Games have been held at Tong since 1977 and is the second oldest Games on the isle of Lewis. The local football club is Tong FC.
