Extract from John Knox’s Tour through the Highlands and the Hebrides in 1786
Transcription of an extract from ‘A Tour through the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebride Isles, in 1786’ by John Knox.
In 1786 the British Society for Extending the Fisheries sent John Knox to the north and west coasts of Scotland to prospect for new harbours and fishing grounds. During his visit to Tiree, he surveyed the coastline and concluded that Gott Bay was the most practicable place for a pier.
This was in line with the thinking of the Society’s Governor, the 5th Duke of Argyll, who over the previous fifteen years had encouraged settlement in a new fishing village at Scarinish by offering ‘a few years’ free possession of a house-room, two acres of arable and a cow’s grass.’
In 1793 the Duke again instructed the island’s Chamberlain to encourage his tenants to attend to the fishing. However, in a list of exports from Tiree in the following year there is still no mention of any fish being sent from the island.
The full publication is available to borrow from An Iodhlann: 2017.50.3
How to find, watch and identify seals, with information about their special characteristics and life cycle. Also information about the impact on seals of hunting, fishermen, pollution and the law.
Book `The Book of Barra` ed. by John Lorne Campbell.
Local and religious history, schools, customs and topography, agriculture, fishing and other industries, literature, the Crofters` Commission (1883), Norse Place-names, flora and fauna, and index of persons and places.
Minidisk/audio cassette recording of talk on birds by Dr John Bowler, RSPB, in 2002.
Dr John Bowler, the RSPB`s Conservation Officer on Tiree, gives a talk about birds on Tiree in An Iodhlann on 20th February 2002. Includes a discussion about the problems created by Greylag Geese.
Double spread feature about Tiree in the newspaper West Highland Star, 1997
Copy of the West Highland Star containing a feature about Tiree on pages 16 & 17. Includes articles about: (1) plans for a resource centre in Crosspol operated by Argyll & Bute Council Social Work Department which incorporate the local Forum for Disabilty and a youth café, with photograph of Primary 1 English and Gaelic units, (2) corncrake conservation and Dr Clive MacKay funded by RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage, with photograph of Dr MacKay, (3) island gets ready for the longest running windsurfing event in the world, the Tiree Wave Classic, with photograph of Scarinish harbour, (4) young chess champion Daniel MacGowan chosen to represent Scotland in the European Youth Championship`s Under-12 section in Estonia, with photograph.
Photocopy of book extract `Parish of Tiry` by Rev. Archibald McColl.
Description of the geography of Tiree, its wildlife, minerals, antiquities, climate, diseases, population, fuel, manufactures and fishery, livestock, agriculture, the character and customs of the people, the poor, schools, emigration, ferries, churches.
Newspaper cutting `Last call for the corncrake?` by Robin Page, with photocopies.
Article about the falling numbers of corncrakes in Britain, the author`s visit to Tiree in 1989, and the recommendation that Tiree is declared an Environmentally Sensitive Area to protect the corncrakes` habitat.
