FROM: Sharon Clayton, Canada, 23 February 2016
TO: Everyone Interested in Supplying a Rock for a Balephuil Commemoration Memorial
SUBJECT: Memorial to the people who died during the Balephuil Fishing Disaster of 1856
Click here to view request
We are delighted to announce the launch of this, our new website. From 1 December 2015 anyone with internet access will be able to browse our archive from anywhere in the world, and carry out in-depth searches too. The online archive includes digital images of thousands of photographs, documents and artefacts, and a sample of our audio recordings. In future, we hope to include images of everything in the archive, and all of our audio and video recordings. That’s around 12,000 items in total! There is also information on our exhibitions, projects, genealogy service and even a shop.
Argyll Estates’ archivists Ishbel MacKinnon and Jackie Davenport announced today that “Our funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for Written in the Landscape has been successful! We have been awarded up to £100,000, which represents approximately 33% of the total project costs. Most of the remaining funding has already been pledged, so we are now very optimistic that the project will go ahead in early 2016 and run for three years, to December 2018.”
Written in the Landscape is an amazing new project that will allow publication of some of the Duke of Argyll’s family’s historical treasures for the first time. Papers dating back to 1679, which have been kept in dusty bundles in a locked storeroom in Inveraray Castle, will be catalogued and restored. An Iodhlann will then be allowed to digitise the Tiree-relevant documents for our archive. We are hoping to get started in mid-2016.
A wreath dedicated to the people of Tiree during WWII was thrown overboard from the Queen Mary recently. It commemorates the wrecking of the destroyer HMS Sturdy on the rocks at Sandaig during a storm in October 1940. Five lives were lost, but were it not for the actions of Tiree folk, in particular Captain Donald Sinclair, the toll would have been much higher. The dedication on the wreath reads: “Dedicated to the bravery of Captain Donald Sinclair and those who helped in the rescue effort of HMS Sturdy and in remembrance of all those lost on Empire Eland in 1941”. Captain Sinclair was on the Empire Eland when it was torpedoed by a U-boat in the Atlantic.
Work has begun preparing for A’ Bhuain – Tiree Homecoming 2016, which runs on Tiree
from Monday 23 to Friday 27 May. This will be a great week for anyone interested in the
history and culture of the island, and includes talks from Professor Donald Meek on what
Tiree means to him, Dr John Holliday on Viking Tiree and Ishbel MacKinnon (the archivist at Inveraray Castle) on the secrets of her collection; tours of both graveyards; bird-watching with the island’s expert; concerts and dances; and a chance to meet islanders, old and new friends at the daily cafe hosted by island groups. The week is designed around descendants of those who left Tiree, but everyone in the world is welcome – however, there’s only room for 200! Put A’ Bhuain and 2016 into your favourite search engine, or go to: www.tireehomecoming.com
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.
Hammerstone found at the east end of Balevullin Bay close to Rubha na Bò Maoile in March 2000.
