Black & white photograph of the ferryboat approaching the steamer off Scarinish in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
Courtesy of Mrs Mary Cameron
Before Gott Bay pier was completed in 1913, passengers, livestock and cargo had to be ferried by rowboat between Scarinish harbour and the steamer anchored offshore in deeper water, a somewhat hazardous journey in bad weather.
This photograph of the tender approaching the steamer was taken on a calm day in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The service was operated for many years by Archibald MacKinnon (Èardsaidh ’ic Eòghainn) without serious accident.
The substantial building in the centre background is the store at Scarinish; the one on the left is the school. Between the two lay the Reading Room, now An Iodhlann, where passengers awaited the arrival of the steamer.
Sea bean, horse-eye bean – Macuna sloanei, with a letter of identification from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh dated 12.6.06 (letter in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 4). The seed of a tropical plant carried north on the Gulf Stream and washed up on Tiree’s shore.
Sea bean Entada phasaeoloides, with letter of identification from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh dated 14.7.1998 (letter in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 4). The seed of a tropical plant carried north on the Gulf Stream and washed up on Tiree’s shore.
Colour photograph of the grave of Donaldina MacLean, Tiree, in the Australian outback near Charleville in Queensland.
Courtesy of Mr Chris Hurst
A few years ago, four friends on a trip in central Queensland came across a grave near Charleville. The inscription on the headstone reads: ‘In loving memory of Donaldina McLean only daughter of Dugald and Mary McKinnon Born on the Island of Tiree Argyleshire Scotland November 30th 1880 Died May 1st 1886 Aged 5 years and 3 months.’
According to local knowledge, the child was restless and crying, and the parents attended to her several times during the night. In the morning they found the girl dead with a snake in her bedclothes. She had been bitten several times.
Isolated graves like these are not uncommon in the outback, a testament to the hardships and tragedies endured by the early settlers.
