Softback book ‘The Escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie’ by Malcolm Seddon, 2016. Describing the adventures of Charles Stewart over five months after his defeat at the battle of Culloden in 1746, including his 500-mile trek over the Western Isles and NW Highlands, and eventual rescue. The French ship carrying him away from Scotland passed close to Tiree, where it is said that two Tiree men from Ruaig were abducted to navigate the ship safely onwards. See ‘Donald the Pilot’ for further information.
Poem ‘The Sail Weaver’ by Michele Fermanis-Winward, 2017, inspired by the stories of emigration from the Scottish Islands to the New World. The poet’s four-times great grandmother was Mary (McKinnon) MacLean of Tiree, born 1796, and the subject of the poem. Keith Dash (Australia), Mary MacLean (Scarinish) and John Holliday (Balephuil) are mentioned in the acknowledgements.
An iron ‘crusie’ lamp that was used to burn fish oil and once belonged to Mrs Mary Campbell, grandmother of the donor. Notes accompanying the cruisgean tell that it came into the possession of the donor in 1996 and was initially offered to the Thatched House Museum in Sandaig. There it was photographed and returned to the donor with some notes suggesting that it was “an early 18th century iron hanging cruise lamp presented by the late Viscountess Gort”, and that “a cruse is a clay container which could be transformed into a lamp by being filled with oil and equipped with a simple wick – a rag would suffice, but a rush was more efficient and minimised the smoke.”
Photocopied extract of an article about the location of the Old Norse place-name ‘Isleborg’ in the Argyll Islands, by Dr John Holliday, Balephuil, and the possibility that it refers to an ancient fort on Loch an Eilein on Tiree. Published in West Highland Notes and Queries, Series 4, No. 2, December 2016.
Softback book ‘Deuteroskopia, or a Brief Discourse Concerning the Second Sight, so Called’ by John Frazer, 2011, containing a re-printing of an original pamphlet produced in 1820 by ‘the Reverend Mr John Frazer, late minister of Tiree and Coll, and Dean of the Isles’, reflecting on instances of second sight, including an example from Tiree on page 21.
Softback book ‘An Enlightened Duke: The Life of Archibald Campbell (1682-1761), Earl of Ilay, 3rd Duke of Argyll’ by Roger L. Emerson, 2013. A study of the complex political, social, and intellectual life of a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.
Booklet ‘West Highland Notes & Queries’, Series 4, No. 3, March 2017. Includes articles on the MacLeans of Duart and Lochbuie & the Jacobite Cause 1400-1766 (with references to Tiree), paintings of pipers, ‘The Tacksman Class in Argyllshire 1800-50’, ‘A Visit to Coll in 1831’, and ‘Tiree’s resistance to the Earl of Argyll’s takeover of the Island 1674-1682’ by Nicholas Maclean-Bristol.
Softback book ‘The Crinan Canal’ by Marian Pallister, 2016.
Tells the story of the canal from its origins to the present day, discussing how it was built, who built it, how it changed life in the surrounding areas, and how it has been used. Includes Tiree content, with references to marble, emigration, drainage schemes, destitution, the potato famine, population, wages and Gaelic. (Pages 30, 66, 67, 156 & 157.)
Softback book ‘In Search of Colmcille: The Legacy of St Columba in Ireland and Scotland’, Islands Book Trust, 2015.
This volume contains chapters – in English, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaeilge – from two conferences organised by the Islands Book Trust in Lewis and Donegal on the theme of Columba – his life and legacy. Includes a chapter by Donald Meek ‘St Columba and ‘Celtic Christianity’, with references to Tiree. (Pages 34 – 45)
