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.
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.
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.
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.
Child`s toy made of the iron heel of a hob-nailed boot, twisted string and short length of wood. Known as a `Peter-dum-dick` and possibly used as a catapult or for making clacking noises. Presented to Alan Boyd by Hugh MacLean, Barrapol, around 1985.
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.