The massed school choir was the show's star yesterday (Saturday, April 15) at the opening of the SS Marloch Memorial in Lochboisdale.

The starlets debuted a new song, written by Uist composer Gillebride MacMillan, commemorating the centenary of the exodus from Uist.

There were a few lumps in throats at the opening ceremony at the Lochboisdale Gateway Garden as the crowd took a moment to envisage the hundreds of emigrants that had set sail a hundred years ago from Lochboisdale pier for a new life in Red Deer, Alberta, in Canada.

Departing from Lochboisdale

In an age without the internet or other forms of mass communications, stepping aboard the SS Marloch after a lifetime in Uist, Barra, and Benbecula must have been daunting. It was in many ways terra incognito as the SS Marloch slipped away into metaphorical uncharted waters for its passengers.

Arriving in Red Deer.
Image credit: Red Deer Express