Three detailed diaries of Neil MacPhail, Registrar at Kirkapol during 1897-1924. The diaries cover the periods 1897-1900, 1911-1926, 1920-1923. Entries include the weather, maintenance around the croft, sowing, harvests, cattle breeding, deaths, purchases and payments. Neil was awarded an MBE in 1979 for his services as a Registrar.
Coloured photograph of ‘Ploughing at Balevullin, Tiree’’, 1941-43, taken by archaeologist George Holleyman FSA when he was stationed at RAF Tiree during WWII. Scanned from one of his hand-coloured glass lantern slides now held at An Iodhlann (see 2017.54.4).
Tiree Memories calendar 2016, produced by Alec Walker, Edinburgh. Photographs include Hughina MacKinnon (nee MacFadyen; Hughina Eachainn Bhuidhe), 1981; Willie MacPhee and Mary T MacPhee on a motorbike in Scarinish the 1960s; MacArthur’s Store in Scarinish, 1937; a calf being led off the ferry in 1981; Am Baile Ur, Balephuil, 1955; Brown’s Store in Balemartine, 1980; Tiree Aerodrome from the air 1942; groups of crofters at the Agricultural Show at Whitehouse, 2002; Lord of the Isles ferry at the linkspan pier in 1991; sheep shearing at Parkhouse in 1980; Balemartine School children 1947; puffer ‘Anzac’ at Caoles, 1950s; Mary Stewart sailing past Coll in 1930s.
Emailed information from the Archivist at Argyll Estates’ archives at Inveraray to Iain Knapman, Balephuil, regarding material relevant to the history of land settlement on Tiree. Includes printouts of the two attachments mentioned below.
“There is minimal published research on the history of the land settlement of Tiree. I understand that TM Devine in his ‘The Great Highland Famine: Hunger, Emigration and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th Century’ (Edinburgh, 2004) refers to there being 329 crofts on Tiree by 1802 and that by 1806 four fifths of Tiree was worked by crofters, but I do not know where these figures come from.
Prior to the establishment of crofts, the land was worked by communal farming settlements of multiple tenant farmers, cottars and servants – the baile. Certainly the 5th Duke of Argyll was keen to improve his lands, and the surveys of the lands and of the people who worked the lands that he commissioned towards the end of the 18th century were intended to inform agricultural improvements and the selection of the best workers to carry them out.
Apart from references in the Instructions that you have read, we hold additional correspondence within the bundle series (see attached list for possibly relevant bundles) and there is also a portfolio of specifically Tiree related material, ref. PV65, which Eric Cregeen listed briefly and which I assume informed his publication of the Instructions. I attach a copy of this list as well.”
Accounting book belonging to Robert Nisbet, Heanish, containing records of amounts spent on (1) fencing materials for croft apportionment and the Scarinish-Heanish boundary in 1972, including the share of the costs for Nisbet and DA Cameron, and labour paid to Neil MacNeill for fencing work, (2) supplies from Boots the Chemists, Oban, 1948-1952, (3) goods from Cook & Blair, Greenock, 1948-1952, (3) goods from Cooper, McDougall & Robertson, Glasgow, 1947-1952, (3) insurance from the Co-operative Insurance Society, Glasgow, 1946-1952, (4) goods and services from George & Jobling, Glasgow, 1949-1952, (5) goods from Speedwell Lubricants, London, 1949-1951, (6) goods from Duncan MacDougall, Oban, 1950-1952, (7) goods from Kilmarnock Equitable Co-op Society, 1948-1950, (8) goods from J&D Hilston, Lanark, 1948-1952, (9) goods from McGill & Smith, Ayr, 1948-1952, (10) goods from MacFarlan Shearer & Co., Greenock, 1948-1952, (11) goods from Scottish Agricultural Industries, Glasgow, 1948-1952, (12) services from GPO – Telephone Manager, Glasgow, 1949-1951, (13) bull services of the Scarinish Hotel, 1950, (14) veterinary services of DS Brown, Oban, 1951-1952, (15) rent to the Duke of Argyll, 1949-1952, (16) membership of the Highland Cattle Society of Scotland, 1949-1951, (17) subscription to the Scottish Farmer newspaper, Glasgow, 1951-1952. The accounting book itself is titled “The Guildhall series of stock rulings”.
Article titled ‘Tiree and the Dukes of Argyll in the age of the Clearances and Crofters’ War: coercion, controversy and confrontation’ by James Petre, published in West Highland Notes & Queries, July 2017, pp 17-23. An account of how Tiree changed after the Dukes of Argyll took possession of the island in 1674, and the reaction of the islanders to that change.
Click here to view 2017.64.1
An Iodhlann’s 2nd Historical Ceilidh, 17th May, An Iodhlann, 7.30pm. Dr Holliday will begin the session by talking about the Crofters’ War of 1886, a local agitation that contributed to the creation of the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886. But this isn’t a lecture – everyone is welcome to chip in with their own ideas or pet subjects.
Hardback book ‘We go to the Western Isles’ by Campbell K. Finlay, 1959. Fiction for children in which two young people visit islands in the Hebrides, including Tiree. (Pages 30-31 & 103-5.) Based on first-hand experience of the places visited. Presented to Linda Millar by Craigmount School, and signed by Eleanor Miller (Hudson), Taobh-na-Mara, Balemartine, Tiree.
Scottish Land Court document, 1913, drawn up between the Duke of Argyll and Duncan MacDonald, Lower Caoles, regulating the use of storm-cast seaweed in Coales. Other names mentioned: Alexander MacLean (Snr), Caoles; Hugh MacLean, Caoles; John MacFadyen, Caoles; Hector MacDonald, Caoles; Lachlan MacLean, Caoles; Alexander MacLean (Jnr), Caoles; Hugh MacDiarmid (Factor), Island House; John Disselduff (Sheriff-Clerk Oban).
Hardback book ‘Gaelic Scotland: The Transformation of a Culture Region’ by W. J. Withers, 1988. Covers the process of cultural change in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, particularly during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (Including policies of successive governments, the decline of the Gaelic language, and the Clearances.) Tiree mentioned pages 8, 181, 209, 214, 219, 225, 241, 285, 357, 359, 373-5 & 380.
