Photocopied extract `Tiree craggans` by G. A. Holleyman from `Antiquity`, Vol XXI, 1947, pp 205-211. Description by George Holleyman of the making and use of Tiree craggans.
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2000.167.3
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Dates: 1940s
2000.174.2
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin
Series of five photographs of Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin demonstrating how his mother would make a craggan.
Courtesy of Mr George Holleyman
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin, Tiree demonstrates how his mother, Flora MacNeill, would make small clay pots known as craggans which were believed to have special healing properties particularly in the case of consumption.
After selecting a large lump of local clay, it was carefully worked by hand into a vessel with a neck and everted rim. The finished pot was allowed to dry then baked in the ashes of the fire. Milk was poured into and over it while still hot to make the surface less porous.
The photographs were taken by George Holleyman, an archaeologist posted to RAF Tiree during World War II. He later published a paper ‘Tiree Craggans’ in the journal ‘Antiquity’.
2000.174.4
Black and white photograph of Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin in the early 1940s.
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin demonstrates how his mother, Flora MacNeill, would make small clay pots known as craggans. This series of five photographs were taken with Kodak Brownie by George Holleyman, an amateur archaeologist, posted to RAF Tiree during World War II.
2000.174.5
Black and white photograph of Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin in the early 1940s.
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin demonstrates how his mother, Flora MacNeill, would make small clay pots known as craggans. Made by hand from local clay without the aid of a potter’s wheel, Tiree craggans were believed to have special curative properties, particularly in the case of consumption.
2000.174.6
Black and white photograph of Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin in the early 1940s.
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin demonstrates how his mother, Flora MacNeill, would make small clay pots known as craggans. Each township had its potter who was always a woman. Flora MacNeill of Balevullin, who died aged eighty in the 1920s, was the last known craggan-maker on Tiree.
2000.174.7
Black and white photograph of Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin in the early 1940s.
Hugh MacNeill of Balevullin demonstrates how his mother, Flora MacNeill, would make small clay pots known as craggans. After selecting a large lump of local clay, it was carefully worked by hand into a vessel with a neck and everted rim. The finished pot was allowed to dry then baked in the ashes of the fire. Milk was poured into and over it while still hot to make the surface less porous.
2000.160.8
Photopied letter and drawing about a photograph of the Motor Transport Section stationed on Tiree during WWII.
Letter and drawing about a photograph of the Motor Transport Section (see 2000.160.7) stationed on Tiree during WWII.
2000.160.7
Photograph of the Motor Transport Section stationed on Tiree during WWII.
The Motor Transport Section stationed on Tiree in 1944 (for names see 2000.160.8).
2000.156.10
Paperback book `Fo Sgail a` Swastika` by Domhnall Iain MacDhomhnaill.
Account of the privations of the German prisoner of war camps in Gaelic and English, with 2 CDs of a reading by the author.
2000.152.4
Newspaper article about former policeman Donald Campbell.
Article about former Chief Inspector Donald Campbell from Tiree who joined the Glasgow Police in 1923.