Extract from John Knox’s Tour through the Highlands and the Hebrides in 1786
Transcription of an extract from ‘A Tour through the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebride Isles, in 1786’ by John Knox.
In 1786 the British Society for Extending the Fisheries sent John Knox to the north and west coasts of Scotland to prospect for new harbours and fishing grounds. During his visit to Tiree, he surveyed the coastline and concluded that Gott Bay was the most practicable place for a pier.
This was in line with the thinking of the Society’s Governor, the 5th Duke of Argyll, who over the previous fifteen years had encouraged settlement in a new fishing village at Scarinish by offering ‘a few years’ free possession of a house-room, two acres of arable and a cow’s grass.’
In 1793 the Duke again instructed the island’s Chamberlain to encourage his tenants to attend to the fishing. However, in a list of exports from Tiree in the following year there is still no mention of any fish being sent from the island.
The full publication is available to borrow from An Iodhlann: 2017.50.3
Book `Carolina Scots – An Historical and Genealogical Study` by Douglas F. Kelly with Caroline Switzer Kelly.
Historical study of Scottish emigrations following the Argyll Colony in 1739, including background and reasons for emigration, with sources describing life in Scotland and the Carolinas. Includes names and locations from 1739, and descendants traced to other states such as Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and East Texas.
Book `The Church in the Highlands` ed. by James Kirk.
Late medieval church and culture, the Reformation and Gaelic culture – John Carswell`s translation of `The Book of Common Order`, Roman Catholicism, Disruptions and controversies in the Highland Church, the Gaelic Bible, Highland Churches today
Book `The Book of Barra` ed. by John Lorne Campbell.
Local and religious history, schools, customs and topography, agriculture, fishing and other industries, literature, the Crofters` Commission (1883), Norse Place-names, flora and fauna, and index of persons and places.
Book `Seal-folk and ocean paddlers` by John M. MacAulay.
Investigation of the mystery of seal-folk and ocean paddlers in kayaks around the islands of Scotland. A mix of Hebridean and Norse tradition, mythology, and historical fact.
Folk literature of the Highlands, including chapters on Douglas Graham, Folk Words and sayings, (Gaelic and Scots) charms, omens, witches and warlocks, magic, shape shifting, the Brotherhood of the Horseman`s word, water kelpies and religion.
Book `Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping 1745-1945` by John G. Gibson.
History of bagpiping from the Highlands to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Includes the Disarming Act, military piping, repertoire of civilian and military pipers, and competition piping. Also the influence of the church and emigration. Pages 6 and 192: Tiree.
