Black and white photograph of the old harbour and lighthouse, Scarinish.
The old harbour and lighthouse in Scarinish.
Lifting potatoes at Ruaig
Postcard of the potato harvest at Ruaig in the mid-1920s.
Courtesy of Mr Angus MacLean
Potatoes were first grown in the Hebrides in 1743 when they were brought back to South Uist from Ireland by MacDonald of Clanranald. His tenants were unwilling to plant them and brought the crop to his house as they refused to eat them.
However, by 1800 potatoes had become the main food crop in the islands, including Tiree. They produce three to five times as many calories as grain from the same area of land. Potatoes are also a much more dependable crop than oats and barley, which can be flattened overnight by a storm.
Dependable, that is, until 1846, when the fungus causing potato blight caused widespread starvation in Europe. It is said that West Hynish was the only area of Tiree to be unaffected. This postcard shows Nancy and Alexander MacInnes in the foreground harvesting potatoes in Ruaig in the mid-1920s.
Black and white photograph of potato lifting at Ruaig.
Lifting potatoes at Ruaig, c. 1925-6, with Nancy and Alexander MacInnes in the foreground (Duncan MacInnes`s aunt and great-uncle).
Family tree for the descendants of Charles Alfred MacKinnon with a covering letter from his grandson.
Family tree for the descendants of Charles Alfred MacKinnon, born 1838 in Ruaig and died 1926 in Australia.
Photocopied newspaper cutting about Captain Charles MacKinnon and transcription of the same.
Obituary for Captain Charles MacKinnon born in Ruaig in 1838 and died in Australia in 1926.
Copy of poster for Danish bacon dated 15/2/1926.
Poster from the Danish Bacon & Co-operative Trading Company, Leith, listing products and prices, originally from Malcolm MacArthur`s shop in Balinoe.
Copied letter from the United Co-operative Baking Society dated 10/2/1926.
Letter from the United Co-operative Baking Society dated 10/2/1926 to Malcolm MacArthur, Balinoe, receipting payment and acknowledging an order.