Framed photograph of Turnbull`s 1768-9 map of Tiree
Turnbull`s 1768-9 map of Tiree, original of which is in the collection of the Duke of Argyll at Inverary Castle and copied by RCAHMS.
Tiree in 100 Objects – 1 – The Turnbull Map
We start this epic series with a map. It is huge – 8 feet by 6 – and painted on canvas. It belongs to the Duke of Argyll and sits in his archives at Inveraray Castle. We have a small copy in An Iodhlann. In 1768 the Campbells had owned Tiree for less than one hundred years, but already the Duke had decided to use his crown jewel not as a clan chief, but as its landlord. Driving up revenues from this fertile island was this main aim, and moving a medieval farming system into the modern age was his method. First he needed to know the island’s potential.
Heanish area of Turnbull’s map of Tiree, hand-painted 1768
James Turnbull was his chosen surveyor for this enterprise. We know very little about him, other than it took him five weeks to travel to Tiree and return to his Edinburgh home. But he was obviously a supremely skilled professional and his map a thing of lasting beauty as well as being a treasure trove of information about the island in the 18th century. The boundaries of the old farming townships curve through the landscape (for example either side of the Caolas road), every house is drawn in its place and every field and its furrows are marked precisely. The map was drawn thirty years before the crofts were marked out: the thirty or so houses in Vaul are clustered at the bay, just east of Seaside, while the township’s cropped fields cover the golf course!
Turnbull also wrote an accompanying field-by-field report: ‘Barapol: Field number 44; Infield; A compound of loam, gravel and clay, a good soil’. He calculated that 3,474 acres, 25% of Tiree’s land area, were sown with oats and barley – numbers we can only dream about today!
18th century brooch pin and 15th century bronze buckle mounting found on Balevullin machair.
Brooch pin and bronze buckle mounting found on Balevullin machair before 1953. Examined and identified by the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in Edinburgh (pre-1953). The pin is thought to have been made during the 18th century, whilst the buckle was thought to be made in the 15th century because “leaf shaped terminal did not appear until after 14th century”. Includes photocopy of historian`s notes.
Family tree for the descendants of Hugh Black and his wife Annabella MacInnes.
Family tree for the descendants of Donald Black (1800-1849), son of Hugh Black (b. 1770) of Kenovay and his wife Annabella MacInnes. Donald and his wife Catherine Campbell died on board the Charlotte en route for Montreal in 1849.
Photocopied handwritten information about individual Tiree people in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Biographical notes about individual Tiree people: John MacLean (Am Bard MacGhilleathain); merchant John Campbell of Scarinish (d. 1817); Colin MacNiven, Greenhill (18th century); Dugald MacEachern, schoolmaster (b. 1789); Rev John MacLean of Cornaig (b. 1841); Donald MacKechnie of Kenovay, joiner and postmaster (b. 1846); Captain Angus Lamont of Cornaig (b. 1844); tailor John MacPhail of Cornaigmore (b. 1846); John MacLucas, Balephuil (d. 1875).
Paperback book `The British Fisheries Society 1786-1893` by Jean Dunlop.
The history of the British Fisheries Society, a blend of public and private enterprise, which was an early attempt to benefit the people of the west and north of Scotland.
Paperback book `The Companion to Gaelic Scotland` edited by Derick S. Thomson.
Every aspect of the life and culture of Gaelic Scotland from archaeology, art, literature, language, music and architecture to politics, agriculture and the economy.
Paperback book `A History of the Clan MacLean` by J. P. McLean.
History of the clan MacLean from its first settlement at Duart Castle in Mull to the present period (1889) including a genealogical account of some of the principal families together with their heraldry, legends and superstitions.
