Caimbeul was born on 9 October 1903 at
Swainbost,
Ness,
Isle of Lewis, where his family had lived since being evicted from
Uig in 1842, during the
Highland Clearances. The island's
Anglo-Scottish landlord had originally intended for the families of the evicted to emigrate, and only granted them land at Swainbost to avoid the threat of violence. The poet's parents were Alexander Campbell from
Habost (
Alastair Mhurchaidh Òig, 1865–1948) and Christina "Christy" Maclean (
Cairistìona Aonghais MhicillEathain, 1868–1930). Of the poet's nickname of
Am Puilean, his son Donald John has said, "Many Ness nicknames have no meaning, as appears to be the case here." Between 1909 and 1918, Aonghas attended the 300-pupil Cross School and later recalled, "A Lowlander, who had not a word of Gaelic, was the schoolmaster. I never had a Gaelic lesson in school, and the impression you got was that your language, people, and tradition had come from unruly, wild, and ignorant tribes and that if you wanted to make your way in the world you would be best to forget them completely. Short of the stories of the
German Baron Münchhausen, I have never come across anything as dishonest, untruthful, and inaccurate as the
history of Scotland as taught in those days." In 1918, the poet's father became a missionary for the
Free Church of Scotland and was assigned to
Berneray,
Isle of Harris. As the family journeyed to the new assignment, they travelled through
Stornoway, which the poet thus saw for the first time. Aonghas worked first as a cowherd at Bernery and then began working for the Stewarts of Ensay as a boatman and handyman on the islands in the
Sound of Harris. In 1924, the poet began working as a crewmember on luxury yachts. In this job, he visited the
French Riviera, which later fuelled his radical social views. ==India and Lewis==