Newsletter `An Tirisdeach`, No. 356, 12/11/2005.
Local news and events including the community wind turbine, The Royal Bank`s fundraising event, article by councillor Ian Gillies, changes to CalMac`s discount scheme for disabled drivers, nomination of Skipinnish for Dance Band of the Year award and an article about tea tree oil.
Neil and Donald MacKinnon of Brock in their skiff, the ‘Tunnag’
Photograph of Neil and Donald MacKinnon of Brock in their skiff, the ‘Tunnag’, in the 1930s.
Courtesy of Mr Alasdair Sinclair
Neil MacKinnon, holding aloft a lobster, and his brother Donald, both from Brock, are pictured in their skiff, the ‘Tunnag’, in the early 1930s. The old men were very fussy about placing the single-entrance creels precisely so that the entrance faced the rocks where the lobsters were hiding.
Their great-nephew Alasdair Sinclair remembers, as a ten year old boy, having the job of rowing the boat while Neil placed the creels. The ‘Tunnag’ was eight feet wide with long, narrow-bladed oars. While he was trying to manoeuvre the boat, the pernickety old man would be saying, ‘Chan eil sin ceart idir. Feuch a-rithist e!’ (That’s not right at all. Do it again!)
Lobsters often hide inshore at low tide in small crevices in the rocks called ‘faichean’. Knowledge of their whereabouts were kept secret and passed down through the family.
Black and white photograph of Neil and Donald MacKinnon of Brock in the early 1930s.
L-R: Neil MacKinnon of Brock, holding aloft a lobster, and his brother Donald, both from Brock, in the skiff `Tunnag` in the early 1930s. (Neil and Donald were brothers of Alasdair Sinclair`s grandmother.)
Leaflet about the `Tiree Boat Revival Project 2005`.
Leaflet about the Tiree Boat Revival Project, a five year project which includes building a boat shed, restoring six traditional Tiree boats and a building a new one.
Sail from the boat `The Barrach`.
Sail, hand-made in Tiree, from the boat `The Barrach` owned by John MacDonald of Mannal, the grandfather of Joan MacArthur. He sailed the boat from Barra to Tiree.
Black and white photograph of Captain John MacKinnon on board the Claymore at Tobermory.
Captain John MacKinnon (Teònaidh Dhòmhnaill bhig) of Vaul on board the Claymore at Tobermory in the late 1960s.
Black and white photograph of a car being hoisted aboard the ferry at Coll.
A car being hoisted aboard the ferry at Coll around 1968-9.
Leaflet for Skipinnish Sea Tours.
Colour lraflet withinformation about Skippinish Sea Tours.
Photocopied letter about Captain Donald Archibald MacCallum lost at sea during World War II.
Letter about Captain Donald Archibald MacCallum, master of `Designer`, which was torpedoed and sunk during World War II.
Colour photograph of old boat at Scarinish harbour in 2004.
Old boat at Scarinish harbour photographed by Dr John Holliday in 2004.
The shed at Balemartine with the roof made from an old boat, photographed by Dr John Holliday in 2004.
The unpredictability of the sea quite naturally bred a strong sense of the magical and superstitious amongst Tiree’s fishermen. Everything had to be done sun- or clock-wise. Boats were always pushed into the sea stern first and then turned ‘deiseal’, clock-wise.
Women were thought to be unlucky in or near a boat. It was widely thought that it brought misfortune to have a minister on a boat. Even meeting a minister on the way to fishing was a bad sign. If anyone called after a fisherman going to sea it was unlucky and they turned back.
It was bad luck to burn a boat and the old fishermen would pull boats that were no longer seaworthy up on the shore and leave them to rot. Sometimes old boats were made into roofs for outhouses as in this photograph taken in Balemartine.
