Hardback book ‘Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981: The Geographical History of a Language’ by Charles W. J. Withers, 1984. Foreword by Derick S. Thomson. Surprisingly little is known of the geographical history of Gaelic: where and when it was spoken in the past, and how and why the Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland has retreated and the language declined. This book answers four broad questions: what has been the geography of Gaelic in the past? How has that geography changed over time and space? What have been the patterns of language use within the Gaidhealtachd in the past? And what have been the processes of language change? Tiree mentioned pages 50, 68, 207, 221, 299, 311.
University assignment ‘The Isle of Tiree: One of a Kind’ written in 2013 by Leanne Piper, University of Guelph, Canada, who is descended from emmigrants John MacKinnon (1816-1896) and Grace Campbell (b.1811), Cornaigbeg. Includes information on geography, crofting history, geology, the kelp industry and architecture.
Collection of 12 academic papers (1984-2013) about Vikings in the Hebrides including information on Norse names in Barra, the Hebrides and the N Atlantic area, Viking silver and gold artefacts, migration to the Inner Hebrides, Norse and Gaelic ancestry by DNA analysis, genetic evidence in Shetland and Orkney, colonization of the N. Atlantic, ethnicity, the Vikings in Gaelic oral tradition.
Photograph of a piece of hexagonal basalt at Baugh, 2014
Colour photograph of a piece of basalt rock found on the beach at Baugh in 2014. Although the edges are now worn, it appears similar to the hexagonal rocks of Staffa (see V128), from where it may have originated.
Softback book about the history, ecology and conservation of native hazel woodland on the Atlantic fringes of Britain and Ireland. Hazel woodland is thought to have existed on Tiree and Coll around 9,000 years ago. The nuts were probably an important food source for seasonal foragers around the sea kingdom.
