Transcript of Police Report and Precognition of Witnesses regarding the sudden death of Archibald MacInnes and Charles MacLean in February 1860. MacInnes and MacLean drowned when a wave hit their boat while fishing for lobsters on an open skiff near Bealach na Ciste on the Isle of Soay. Duncan MacInnes (brother of Archibald MacInnes, Ruaig) survived the accident. The report contains descriptions of clothing on the bodies of the sailors. Copies of the registrations of the deaths are also included.
Statements are provided from:
Duncan McInnes (fisherman, Ruaig) Alexander MacLean (shoemaker, Ruaig) John McInnes (tailor, Ruaig. Father of the deceased) Niel McLeod (fisherman, Ruaig) John Lamont (fisherman, Ruaig) Donald McInnes (fisherman, Ruaig) Archibald McInnes (fisherman, Ruaig) Finlay Fraser (Detective Constable, Tiree) Malcolm Livingstone (Registrar, Tiree) Flora McKinnon or McLean (wife of John McLean, Ruaig) Hugh McKinnon (fisherman, Ruaig)
Digitised copy of State of the difference between the Tiree rental 1757 and the Tiree rental 1758. This record contains a table showing the differences in rent for farms at Kilmoluaig and Beist, Balivilline [Balevullin], Cornaigmore, Cornaigbeg, Ruaig, Kirkapol, Hianish, Vaul, ¾ of Kelis [Caolas], Baugh, Heylipol, Balinoe and Quiyeish [Hynish].
Digitised copy of Instructions for the chamberlain of Tiree, 1753. These instructions were sent from the Duke of Argyll and include: land erosion, the windmill at Scarinish, cutting of peats, employment of ditchers, Lachlan McLean’s rent of the farm at Ruaig, waterfowls, crogans or clay dishes, conversion of rents to a forehand silver rent. 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.
Digitised copy of Instructions for the chamberlain of Tiree, 23 October 1750. These instructions were sent from the Duke of Argyll and include: land erosion (particularly at Cladich-chrogan in Balephetrish); quarrying, use of tenants to build a stone barricade; draining the Loch of Kirkapol; cutting of turf; tiends; Lachlan McLean at Ruaig and the building of a lint miln there; tenants in arrears; quarrels with McCualrigs; the pulling of bear [barley] and making gredan meal; growing hempseed on Tiree; sand drifts in Kelis [Caoles], Ballevilline [Balevullin], Keylipol and Quiyeish; arrangements for disposing of the product of the island; the farm at Crossapol; sending salt beef to market; use of planks; Hector McLean of Coll and the rental of the two ends of Coll; Donald McMillan and the tack of Beist; Memorial of Hector and Alexander McLean, who claaim to be unjustly turned out of their tack of Gott and Vuill by Barnecarry.
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.
Digitised copy of a description of the island of Tiree by Lachlan McLean, 1737. McLean was a merchant in Glasgow who had tenancy of a farm in Ruaig. There is no transcript available 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.
Article ‘Inspired by Tiree’ by Mavis Gulliver revealing how her children’s novel ‘Cry at Midnight‘ evolved. Scottish Islands Explorer magazine, Sept/Oct, 2014.
Poem by Flora MacPhail, Ruaig, about a Harris Tweed jacket made by Dugald MacArthur, Sliabh, Balephuil in around 1940. In Gaelic with an English translation. It was worn by Jamie MacDonald, Ruaig, on TV for the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2018.
Black & white photograph of GPO engineer Donald Quintin Campbell standing by his company van in summer 1950. Donald, or Donnie or DQ as he was known, was one of the first and longest serving telephone engineers on Tiree. He was sent to the island for a few months under protest in 1948, but ended up staying for 21 years. In 1954, Donald married Jessie MacLean Kennedy of Kilmoluaig, and they lived in Machair House, Ruaig, which was owned by the GPO at the time.
