Donald Lamont with his children
Photograph of Donald Lamont (1829-1909) with his children.
Courtesy of Mr Gene Lamont
Sarah MacDonald was nine years old when she and her widowed mother left Salum to emigrate to Canada in the late 1840s. Her mother died during the voyage but she was fostered by a family of MacKinnons and settled with them in Kincardine Township in Ontario.
She married a native of Tiree, Donald Lamont, the son of Peter Lamont and Ann MacLean, crofters with a large family who emigrated from Cornaigbeg in 1851. Sarah, with her love of books and learning and ability to read and write in Gaelic and English, became a school teacher.
The couple had nine children although Sarah became paralysed from the waist down after her sixth pregnancy. Confined to her home, she concentrated on the education of her children. In later years an acquaintance of the family observed ‘that all a Lamont needs to make him or her happy is a book.’
Black and white photograph of Donald Lamont and his children in the 1870s.
Donald Lamont (1829-1909), husband of Sarah MacDonald, with their children in the 1870s.
Sepia photograph of the daughters of Donald Lamont and Sarah MacDonald in the 1890s.
The daughters of Donald Lamont from Cornaigbeg and Sarah MacDonald from Salum, probably photographed in the 1890s. L-R: Belle, Janet, Ann, Hannah and Dot.
Sepia photograph of Peter and Elizabeth Lamont.
Peter Lamont (born 1863), the oldest son of Donald Lamont and Sarah MacDonald, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Carleton.
Black and white photograph of Sarah Lamont nee MacDonald in the 1910s.
Sarah MacDonald (1838-1916), daughter of Archibald MacDonald and Isabella MacFadyen. In the late 1840s she emigrated to Canada with her widowed mother who died on the voyage. Fostered by a family of MacKinnons she settled in Kinccardine Township where she met and married Donald Lamont, the son of Peter Lamont and Ann MacLean, crofters with a large family who emigrated from Cornaigbeg in 1851. Sarah and Donald had nine children, although Sarah became paralysed from the waist down during the birth of her sixth child.
Neil MacDonald’s homestead around 1910
Photograph of the homestead of Neil MacDonald from Caoles in Moore Township, Ontario, taken around 1910.
Courtesy of Mrs Ann Hentschel
Neil MacDonald was born in Caoles in 1831, the son of cottar Donald MacDonald and his wife Marion MacDougall. Sometime between 1851 and 1861 he and his brother Hugh emigrated to Canada. Hugh established himself in the Bruce peninsula where there was large settlement of Tiree immigrants.
Neil chose Moore Township where he purchased fifty acres of land in 1869 and an additional fifty acres in 1873. He cleared the land and built his homestead. In 1877 he married Catharine Beaton and the couple had four children. Life in the early years of the farm was a struggle.
Two of their sons died young; Catharine died a few years later, it was said, of a broken heart. In this photograph of Neil, taken outside the house he built, are his son Donald, his daughter-in-law Laura and his grandson Alvin.
Black and white photograph of Neil MacDonald`s homestead in Moore Township around 1910-1911.
Neil MacDonald`s homestead in Moore Township, Ontario around 1910-1911. Neil purchased 50 acres of land in 1869, cleared the land and built this house. L-R: Neil`s son Donald known as Dan; their dog; his grandson Alvin known as Mac; his daughter-in-law Laura; Neil himself.
Neil MacDonald and his family around 1917
Photograph of Neil MacDonald from Caoles with his family on their farm in Moore Township, Ontario around 1917.
Courtesy of Mrs Ann Hentschel
Neil MacDonald from Caoles was photographed around 1917 with his son Donald (known as Dan) and his grandchildren Mabel, Charlie and Alvin on their farm on the 6th Line of Moore Township, Ontario. The identity of the woman holding the child is unknown.
Dan married a local girl, Laura Richardson, in 1904 and the couple lived happily on the family farm. Neil continued to stay there until his death in 1918. As the children grew up they were expected to help on the farm. All three attended the same one-room school on Kimball Sideroad that Dan had attended earlier. Mabel would later teach there.
In 1923 Dan took out a mortgage to purchase an additional one hundred acres. By the end of 1932 they had lost everything. During the Great Depression crop prices fell to around half their former value and Dan was unable to make the mortgage repayments.
Black and white photograph of Neil MacDonald and his family in Moore Township around 1917.
Neil MacDonald of Caolis and his family on the farm on the 6th Line of Moore Township, Ontario. Neil is standing. His son Donald (Dan) and his children Mabel, Charlie, and Alvin (Mac) are on the wagon. The lady holding the child is unknown. This photo was taken circa 1917.
Donald MacIntyre and Lady Dawn
Photograph of Donald MacIntyre with his Clydesdale mare Lady Dawn of Gott.
Courtesy of Mrs Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
Donald MacIntyre was photographed with his Clydesdale mare Lady Dawn of Gott in the summer of 2006 by Claudia Ferguson-Smyth. Dawn is looking somewhat dejected. She has been tormented by clegs (horse-flies); the lumps from their bites can be seen on her flanks.
Donald has bred Clydesdale horses for nearly seventy years and exhibited them regularly at the Highland Show at Ingleston outside Edinburgh. He once won fourth prize for a three-year-old mare in the 1970s and enjoyed competing in the horse-shoeing events.
From a long line of blacksmiths in Gott, Donald has always made and fitted the shoes for his own horses. Before the days of tractors he used to go to Coll every March and November for about a fortnight to shoe horses and repair farm implements. His is the last working smithy on Tiree.
Colour photograph of Donald MacIntyre of Gott with his Clydesdale mare Lady taken in the summer of 2006.
Donald MacIntyre of Gott with his Clydesdale mare Lady photographed in the summer of 2006 by Claudia Ferguson-Smyth.
An Turas
Photograph of An Turas, Scotland’s Building of the Year 2003.
Courtesy of Mrs Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
Commissioned by Tiree Art Enterprises, An Turas (The Journey) was the result of a collaborative project involving artists and architects. The building won the Royal Institute of Architects of Scotland’s Building of the Year award in 2003 and was short-listed for the RIBA Stirling Award later that year.
The building is long and narrow and in three distinct sections. The first and longest is two parallel white walls open to the sky, which echo with the sound of footsteps. The second is a bridging black box with a wooden floor and low open slatted sides which reveal the rock and sand beneath.
The final section is a glass box framed in steel and floored with upright stacked slate. Protruding through a stone dyke, the box gives an unobstructed three-dimensional view of the surrounding landscape while sheltering the viewer from the elements.
Colour photograph of An Turas taken in the summer of 2006.
An Turas photographed in the summer of 2006 by Claudia Ferguson-Smyth.
Black and white photograph of Scarinish Hotel around 1910.
Scarinish Hotel around 1910, from the Sturgeon collection, Coll.
Black and white photograph of Scarinish Hotel around 1910.
Scarinish Hotel around 1910, from the Sturgeon collection, Coll.
