Photocopied letter to Sir Edward Coffin dated 26/1/1847 from Royal Navy Commander Baynton.
Letter to Sir Edward Coffin dated 26/1/1847 from Royal Navy Commander Baynton about the severe shortage of food and the appearance of typhus and cholera on Tiree.
Click here to view 1998.151.12
Photocopied handwritten list of cottars on Tiree in 1846.
List of cottars on Tiree in 1846 giving township, name of head of family, marital status and number in family.
English-speaking Tiree residents in 1845
Transcription of the Rev. Neil MacLean’s letter about the number of people with English on Tiree in 1845.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In 1845 the Parish minister, Rev. Neil MacLean, estimated that in three-quarters of the families in Tiree at least one member had some English. All the children apart from those attending the Gaelic schools were taught the language to some extent.
In the early 20th century most children entering primary school spoke only Gaelic but were taught solely in English. A survey conducted by Co-Roinn Ghàidhlig Thiriodh ’s Cholla in 1994 found that around 45% of the adult population on Tiree and 15% on Coll could speak Gaelic, most of these in the older age brackets.
In 1989, concern over the decline of the Gaelic language led to the opening of a Gaelic medium unit within the Primary Department of Tiree High School which is attended by half the island’s children.
Photocopied newspaper cutting about the seaweed industry.
Article about Edward Curtis Stanford (1837-1899) who managed the seaweed factory at Middleton for the North British Seaweed Co.
Printout from computer disk giving the roll of emigrants from Tiree in 1847.
Roll of emigrants from Tiree in 1847 giving name of head of family, number in family, township, status and means.
Payments to emigrants from Tiree to Canada in June 1846
Transcription of a list of payments made to emigrants from Tiree to Canada in June 1846.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In the fifty years before the potato famine, the population of Tiree doubled to over five thousand, making it one of the most congested areas in the Highlands and Islands. Continued sub-division of the island’s crofts had left most of them too small to support a family.
Poverty was endemic. Landless cottars, many of whom were ‘dependent of the charity of others for food’, comprised more than a third of the island’s population. A Free Church investigation into diet in 1846 found that potatoes formed over half of all food consumed.
In previous years, the smaller tenants and cottars had shown themselves reluctant to emigrate. However, when the potato crop failed in 1846 and the Marquis of Lorne promised assisted passages to Canada for the poorest, over a thousand from Tiree indicated their willingness to leave.
Photocopied extracts from `At Scotland`s Edge` about Skerryvore, pp 27, 54-5, 88-9, 154-5
Book extract about Skerryvore lighthouse.
Newspaper cutting about Skerryvore lighthouse.
Article about Alan Stevenson and the building of Skerryvore lighthouse.
Newspaper cutting `The Quern-Dust Calendar` by Raghnall MacilleDhuibh.
Legend about John Brown who hid a ploughshare, died without revealing its whereabouts and thereafter his ghost haunted Dun Crosg in Glen Lochy.
Photocopied list of all the MacArthurs in Tiree in 1841.
List of all the MacArthurs in Tiree in 1841, grouped by township and family.
