Just for Fun

Readers might remember the Christmas competition, which aimed to identify a tiny holding on the 1808 Estate Map; purely by chance, it has now been noticed that the area in question has a proper name and is clearly shewn on the modern O.S. map – it is Cnoc an Ardrigh.  As many people will know, Symington Grieve had been told that this was some sort of “pleasure ground” associated with Dun Eibhinn and he took the name to mean “Hill ...

COLONSAY Ploughing Match:  Competitions for ploughing supremacy were commenced on this island twenty-four years ago, and, with the exception of a few years’ break, have been continued to this day.  The last was held on the 14th ult. , on Kiloran farm, tenanted by Mr. William Stroyan.  The morning opened wet and unpromising, but as the day advanced the weather cleared up, with a sharp east wind, which, however bracing to the nerves of the competitors, nearly killed the onlookers, ...

Our illustration is from a later edition of David Wilson’s Colonsay Map of 1804; this particular edition includes the new Mill, so is probably dated about 1870, but the edition is not relevant.  We have reproduced a section between Scalasaig and Machrins, and it shows the new road passing An Garbh Cladaich, but does not yet show the one across the Monadh Thomach (which is, presumably, as yet undrained).

A “D” shaped enclosure is shewn to the south of the road ...