Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 14 Jan 1802. In this letter McLaurine discusses: sending specimens of barley, pottery, clay and fossil sand; an analysis of sand by Dr Gardner; corresponding with Captain Campbell; writing to Greenock; difficulty in finding boys willing to go to Inveraray to learn to be Quarriers, and the reasons for their reluctance; illegal distilling of whisky; removals from the island, including the schoolmaster and the miller at Crossapol; the Bailie; the farm at Crossapol; replacing the ground officer, Angus Munn, with Neil McLean (previously a sergeant in Lord Lorne’s fencibles), and remarks on their characters; using wood cast ashore to repair the byre and stable at the Factor’s house; a model of the windmill; problems with sending post in the winter.
Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 15 Dec 1801. In this letter McLaurine expresses gratitude to the Duke of Argyll for giving him the farm at Balephuil and agreeing to build a house on it; the factor; the division of the farm at Crossapoll into crofts; instructing the people of Tiree in farming; enclosing and subdividing the farm at Balephuil; plans to develop a large garden and nursery; using the Volunteer Company to maintain the social order of the island and to supress smuggling and distilling; the Argyllshire Companies.
Digitised copy of Estimate for draining lochs in Tiree by George Langlands, 1773. Contains ‘the levill and expence’ of draining Loch Phuil, Loch Barapoll, Loch Heyllipoll, Loch Vassapoll, and Loch Kirkapoll. There is no transcript for this item.
Click to view a record for this item on Inveraray’s online catalogue.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
Photographs and information about a message in a bottle found on the beach at Balephuil in winter 2011/2012. It had been launched by student Jolly Aleyoyok on 28 July 2011 at Baffin Island, Canada, as part of The Drift Bottle Project (Students on Ice Arctic Youth Expedition).
Colour photo postcard of Tràigh Bhì / Travee, looking east from the Kenavara shore. Photographed by J H Rutter of Balemartine and printed in Inverness.
Black & white photo postcard of Travee, Balephuil, in around 1912. The postcard is addressed to Rev Archibald MacDonald, Islay (formerly Balephuil), and was produced by J A McNeill, Post Office, Tiree.
Newspaper cutting advertising the private sale of the whole of Tiree by the 10th Duke of Argyll in 1951, with images of Island House and Balephuil Bay. The island was not sold, and remained in the property of the Dukes of Argyll.
Green bakelite and glass Bel Jubilee Cream Maker belonging to Mabel Kennedy, Balephuil (Mabel MacArthur’s mother). Made by Blacklers of Liverpool in 1934-6. Includes an instructions leaflet (stored separately).
Coverless copy of ‘The British Women’s Cookery Book’, 1906 (2nd edition), edited by Mrs Ebeneezer (Elizabeth) MacLean, Stirling, and belonging to Donald MacArthur, Ibrox, who opened The Glassary Restaurant at Sandaig with his wife, Mabel. On the Introduction page Donald has written his name and his address in Glasgow.
The book was compiled for sale at the British Women’s Temperance Association Bazaar, which was held in Glasgow in 1905. Its aim was to help “spread knowledge of, and interest in, that efficiency of home management which affects the happiness of people, and their moral wellbeing”.
