Photograph of John and Flora Campbell with a hay rake and pitchfork in the 1930s.
Courtesy of Mrs Mairi Brady
In this photograph taken in the 1930s, John Campbell from Garaphail in Cornaigmore and his wife Flora MacEachern from Creag Mhòr in Cornaigbeg are helping out with hay-making.
The pitchfork and wooden hay rake would have been made locally, the pitchfork head in one of the island’s smiddies, possibly in Cornaigbeg. Flora was the aunt of Hugh MacEachern, the last blacksmith there.
John and Flora had two sons: Hugh who was a chemist in Port Glasgow and Archie who played with Norwich City Football Club. In their retirement the couple returned to Tiree and lived near the school at Cornaigmore.
Black and white photograph of John and Flora Campbell.
John Campbell from Garaphail and his wife Flora MacEachern from Cornaigbeg with pitchfork and wooden hay rake, probably taken in the 1930s. They had two sons: Hugh who was a chemist in Port Glasgow and Archie who played football with Norwich City F.C.
Black and white photograph of Mary Margaret MacLean, May MacPhail and Mary MacEachern.
Mary Margaret MacLean, Cornaigbeg (Alec Mor`s aunt), May MacPhail, Harbour, Cornaigmore (Hector MacPhail`s aunt) and Mary MacEachern, Cornaigbeg, the blacksmith`s daughter, taken in the early 1920s.
Black and white photograph of crofters with a reaper in the 1930s.
Cutting corn with a reaper in Balinoe or Heylipol in the 1930s. L-R: Hector MacLean; mason Alasdair MacArthur (Donald the plumber`s grandfather); Neil MacLean, Hector`s brother; Murdoch MacKinnon, Cu Dheis.
A’ Chailleach Bhuain / The Old Woman of the Harvest made by Hector J. C. Campbell in around 1990.
Courtesy of Mrs Flora MacPhail
On Tiree the last sheaf of corn to be harvested was called A’ Chailleach Bhuain, a tradition that was found all over northern Europe and likely to date from the dawn of farming in Neolithic times. The Corn-spirit was believed to live in the corn, giving it the strength to grow vigorously. As the harvest proceeded, this spirit became concentrated in the remaining crop. The final sheaf to be cut was then regarded as containing its essence. On Tiree, the ‘cailleach’ was fed to the horses before they started the spring ploughing in the belief that the power of the Corn-spirit would be transmitted to the soil for the new year’s growth. This four thousand year old harvest tradition died out before 1910 in Sandaig, in the 1920s in Balinoe and into the 1950s in Heylipol and Balephuil.
These harvest knots were made in 2003 by Lachie MacLean of Kenovay who learned how to make them from his father. They would be plaited from straw at the end of harvest and either worn in a buttonhole, attached to horses’ harnesses or displayed in church.
A thick stem is selected from the base of the plant, often small oats or rye, the outer skin peeled away and cut into 18 inch lengths between the nodes. Two pieces are tied together at one end, plaited, then tied in a simple knot and secured with thread.
It is an old custom that seems not to have a well-known Gaelic name on Tiree and may have been imported from the Lowlands of Scotland by migrant harvest workers. It is also known as a True Lover’s Knot and in Ireland is worn at weddings.
Photocopied newspaper cutting about local news on Tiree in 1912.
Local news about harvesting, teachers` examinations, the Rev. D. MacPherson, the death by drowning of Archibald MacDonald aged 25 of Balemartine and Tiree School Board.
