Softback book ‘The Secret Island – towards a history of Tiree’, 2014. Published proceedings of a three-day conference held on Tiree by the Islands Book Trust in September 2013, with chapters by many authors on a wide variety of aspects of Tiree’s history and culture.
Click here to view contents
List of Tiree Gaelic bird names by Ailean Boyd, 2011.
Click here to view 2018.66.1
Copy of `Cuairt Litir` – newsletter of the Friends of Thatched Houses, 1987
Copy of the first edition of the newsletter of the `Friends of Thatched Houses`, edited by Alec MacArthur, Heylipol. One article is of a series of photographs of `Roofing a New Barn in Tiree (July 1985)` (probably Scarinish), including Hector Brown and Murdoch MacLean, while another article is in Gaelic about the old houses of Tiree by Alan Boyd. The group was set up to aid perservation and restoration of traditional thatched houses in the Hebrides. Most members were from Tiree.
Photograph of Mr & Mrs MacKay and the Boyd family in 1960.
Black & white photograph of Nellie and John MacKay, with Winifred Boyd and her two sons Ailean and Iain, collecting tangles on Travee, Balephuil in 1960. John Morton Boyd probably took the photograph.
Information about the tradition of `Lining Out` the Psalm at Church services pre-1940
Composition by Ailean Boyd about the tradition of `Lining Out the Psalm` in Tiree churches, whereby the precentor chants out each line before it is sung collectively by the congregation. It appears to have come to an end in the mid- to late-1930s. Includes a ‘Short Note’ on the subject published in Scottish Reformation Society Historical Journal, Vol. 4, 2014, and notes about the correct name for Heylipol.
Booklet `Ossian` 1982
Magazine of Comann Oiseanach Oilthigh with articles by Ailean Boid (Alan Boyd), Balephuil.
CD of recordings from The Secret Island history conference, Tiree 2013.
CD of recordings from the three-day history conference held at An Talla on 30th May to 1st June 2013, and organised by The Islands Book Trust, Lewis, with An Iodhlann. Includes talks and speeches given by local and visiting experts.
Tool for twisting rope
Corra-shùgan / rope twister. Iron and wooden tool for hand-twisting rope. From the croft of John MacNeill, Balemartine. Given to Alan Boyd by Chrissie MacArthur in 1972. Similar to 2013.164.4 pictured.
Dissertation on Tiree Gaelic by Alan Boyd, 2021.
Dissertation on the differences between Tiree Gaelic and `standard` Gaelic, by Alan Boyd, Isle of Lewis. Alphabetically lists and describes words that are known to differ on Tiree. Includes a paradigm of irregular verbs as conjugated according to the Tiree vernacular, phonological differences between and within islands, and maps showing patterns of isogloss in the western isles. A full hardcopy is available for reference in An Iodhlann.
Author’s note: “I would stipulate that anyone who wishes to use the information would acknowledge such in writing.”
Click here for Contents and Introduction
Potato gun toy
Child`s `potato gun` or Gunna-staile, made with the base of a swan’s feather and a wooden plunger. Presented to Alan Boyd around 1985 by Hugh MacLean, Barrapol. Flora MacArthur, Moss, remembers her father making them for Donald and Duncan.
