YESTERDAY’S NEWS

This article was written by an Alick G. Wilson, who was one of the first holidaymakers to visit the island in 1887. He also collected some words from a ‘Tinker child’ on the island, so he seems to have been interested in folklore.

HOLIDAY NOTES FROM TIREE
‘My first visit to the island of Tiree was in the summer of last year, and the following notes were taken during my residence there. I would rather not say what my ideas of Tiree were before I came to the island; let it suffice to say that I had taken as quite correct those very misleading reports which appeared in the newspapers in the year of the military and police expedition [1886] …

‘Another stone with a tradition is at Caolis, in the north of the island. If this stone [Clach na Gaoithe ‘the rock of the wind’] be turned in a certain way—with the sun, if I remember rightly—a great gale of wind arises that will destroy any boat that may chance to be out. I heard of the stone being turned once. At one time the people there were great smugglers, and one day a boat loaded with smuggled goods had just put out fairly to sea when the revenue cutter hove in sight. The smugglers at once put about and pulled with all their might for land, while their friends on shore were powerless to help them. At last, an old woman suggested that the stone should be turned and the cutter blown out of existence. As the day was calm and their friends in the shelter of the shore, it was agreed to do this. After some trouble, it was turned, but, alas! no gale rewarded them for their pains. The smugglers, however, escaped with their cargo.

‘On the moor behind the hill of Gott is a small well [Tobar nam Ban Ruadha ‘the well of the red women’] about which a legend is told. Long, long ago, there were only two families in Tiree—the one living in Caolis in the north, the other in the far south of the island. The family at Caolis had only one child, a boy, and one day he went amissing. The father set out to search for him, and, coming to the moor of Gott, saw the two ‘red women’ or witches sitting by the well cleaning the body of his child and preparing to cook it. He hid behind a hillock and shot some arrows at the women. Thereupon, the one witch said to the other, ‘There are some dockan leaves hurting my foot’, but on looking down she saw neither dockan nor thistle there, only an arrow stick in it, the use of which she did not know. She accordingly pulled out the arrow and threw it aside, but the man continued firing. At length, the ‘red women’ caught sight of the man and gave chase after him. He got on his horse and galloped away to Hynish, in the south of the island, a distance of twelve miles. At Hynish there is a great precipice or ‘leap’ [Sloc Leum an Eich ‘the gully of the leap of the horse’] and across it he leaped with his horse, so great was his fright. The women, of course, leaped after him, and leaping short dashed out their brains on the opposite side. Some leaves and flowers which sprang up mark the spot. If you don’t believe this—why, the well is there, the ‘leap’ is there, and you may go and see for yourself.

‘At Hynish is the signal-tower in connection with Skerryvore Lighthouse. Beside the tower are some very neat cottages, where dwell the light-keepers. There is a fine harbour with docks here; and the tower, the cottages, and the harbour are all built of a granite taken from the Ross of Mull. From the tower, a splendid view is got of land and water. At the top of the tower is a sun-dial, by which it is found that the difference between Tiree and Greenwich time is about 28 minutes.

https://www.aniodhlann.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A232-scaled.jpg
A postcard of the Signalling Tower and Light-keepers’ Houses from around 1910. From An Iodhlann’s collection.

‘The people here, like all Highlanders, are more or less superstitious; and in the island there are still to be found men who have that almost obsolete faculty of second-sight. Of course, we wise people now-a-days don’t believe in second-sight, but there are some very curious and yet well-authenticated stories told that are very hard to explain—if in fact they can be explained at all. That is a very curious story told of the marines being seen in the island fifty-two years before they came [in 1886]. A man—MacLaren by name—was returning home one night [in 1834] by the Reef when he saw a band of soldiers. He saw them so plainly that he was quite able to describe their arms and dress, and could also tell where they halted and whither they went. For fifty-two years, he was chaffed about the soldiers, but he lived to see them in the island; and those persons who saw the marines march across the Reef say that they marched and halted just as it had been foretold by old MacLaren. [This is likely to have been Malcolm MacLaren of Kilkenneth, who was born in 1811, and would have been 23 at the time.]

‘Here is another curious one. One bright summer’s day, a young man lay stretched on the grass in front of his aunt’s house, at the door of which his aunt sat knitting. The schoolmaster’s wife came along, and stopped to speak to the old woman about a dress she wanted altered. Having arranged about it she passed on. Immediately she was gone, the young man, who had eyed her rather queerly, said to his aunt, ‘She’ll not bother you with that dress.’ ‘How do you know that?’ asked his relative, ‘Has she changed her mind?’ ‘No,’ said he, but she’ll never need another dress.’ ‘Don’t speak like that,’ said his aunt angrily. ‘You try to frighten people by making them believe you see things.’ ‘Well, really,’ said he, ‘you might have seen the shroud round her yourself. It came up to her very eyes.’ Nothing further was said on the subject, nor was the story repeated, but in less than three weeks the schoolmaster’s wife died, and she never required the dress.’
(Oban Telegraph and West Highland Chronicle, 5 October 1888, 2)

If anyone can tell me more about Alick G. Wilson, I would be grateful.

Dr John Holliday