Transcript of Precognition of Witnesses investigating the dead body of a boy cast ashore in Sandaig on 24 April 1870.
The report contains statements from Donald MacKinnon (son of Hugh MacKinnon, Sandaig), George MacKinnon (son of Hugh MacKinnon, Sandaig), Malcolm Campbell (labourer, Sandaig), John McLean (farmer, Balemeanach [Middleton]), Donald McLean (crofter, Gortendonald), and Alexander Buchanan (surgeon, Baugh). Buchanan also provides a medical report.
This item contains some graphic details about the body of the child, estimated to be eight or nine years old. There are descriptions of the clothing upon the body.
Transcript of a Police Report submitted to Tobermory Procurator Fiscal by Finlay Fraser (D.C., Tiree) regarding the discovery of a body on the shore of Sandaig. The body was possibly one of the crew of the smack Swan of Belfast, which was wrecked on 10th January 1860, and was likely the body of George Murray (Captain, Swan of Belfast).
Transcript of a Police Report submitted to Henry Nisbet, Tobermory Procurator Fiscal, regarding the discovery of a male body on the shore at Greenhill opposite Greenhill House on 20 February 1860. It is speculated in the report that the body was one of the men lost on board the Swan of Belfast, which was wrecked on 19 January 1860. The body was found by Walter Carmichael (labourer, Greenhill). The report is submitted by Finlay Fraser, Detective Constable.
A statement is provided by Walter Carmichael, and is corroborated by:
Neil McLean (Greenhill) Malcolm McNeil (baker from Portree, Skye, but at the time residing in Greenhill House) Lachlan Cameron (tailor, Greenhill) Hector McLean (crofter, Sandaig) Alexander McLean (Ballmeniach [Middleton])
This report contains descriptions of a body in a state of decomposition. Click to read a transcript of this item.
From the liveArgyll Archives in Lochgilphead, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
Small illustrated card from a packet of Park Drive cigarettes (Gallaher Ltd) showing the WWII destroyer ‘HMS Sturdy’ at sea. HMS Sturdy was wrecked on the rocks at Sandaig during a storm in 1940.
Coverless copy of ‘The British Women’s Cookery Book’, 1906 (2nd edition), edited by Mrs Ebeneezer (Elizabeth) MacLean, Stirling, and belonging to Donald MacArthur, Ibrox, who opened The Glassary Restaurant at Sandaig with his wife, Mabel. On the Introduction page Donald has written his name and his address in Glasgow.
The book was compiled for sale at the British Women’s Temperance Association Bazaar, which was held in Glasgow in 1905. Its aim was to help “spread knowledge of, and interest in, that efficiency of home management which affects the happiness of people, and their moral wellbeing”.
Porthole from the WWII warship, HMS Sturdy, which was wrecked on rocks off Sandaig during a storm in 1940. The porthole has been re-painted by Donald Brown, Vaul, and decorated with a sketch of the ship. The stainless steel bolts and backing (made from an old fish box) were added by Donald.
WWII sea mine discovered under gravel on the Sandaig shore in August 2016. Visible are the locations of the detonation horns and the hole where a time-sensitive self-destruct mechanism was installed. Hundreds of pebbles and shells are fused onto its surface. Tens of thousands of similar mines were laid around the Hebrides and the North Sea during the first and second world wars.
