Hon President: vacant
Hon Vice-President: Mr Murdo MacDonald
President: Mr Michael Peacock
Vice-President: Mr Colin 'Les' Oman
Secretary: Mr Angus Martin
Treasurer: Mrs Elizabeth Marrison, FSA Scot
Committee: Mrs Eunice Crook, Mr Iain McAlister, Mr Murdo MacDonald, Dr Sandy McMillan, Mr George McSporran, Mrs Judy Martin, Mrs Ellen Oliver, Ms. Christine Ritchie.

The Society's Winter Programme, 2024-25

2024
23 Oct Gordon Casely: 'Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway'. 13 Nov George McSporran and Angus Martin: 'Teddy Lafferty's Collection of Slides: a Narrated Tour of South Kintyre.'
4 Dec Dr Jenn Lee: 'The Temperate Rainforests of Kintyre.'
2025
15 Jan Elizabeth Marrison: 'A Memorial Evening for Frances Hood, with a presentation of photographs, and songs from The Sarachs (Alex Johnson, Anne Leith and Les Oman).
19 Feb Alison Diamond, archivist of the Argyll Papers at Inveraray Castle (title to be announced).
26 Mar Annual General Meeting, followed by a short presentation by Christine Ritchie on 'The Kilbrannan Sound Sea Serpent'.

Meetings are held on Wednesdays in the Ardshiel Hotel, starting at 7.30 p.m. Non-members welcome - £3 at door.

The 'Simple Life' in Kintyre: Dugald Semple (1884-1964)	Dr Steven Sutcliffe	p2
'The Alban Goes Out': Poem and Documentary	Campbeltown Courier	p7
'Highland Games Meeting at Carradale' (1939)	-	p12
The Mysterious Argyllshire Magazine	Angus Martin	p13
Growing up in Kintyre in the 1960s	Rosemary Hill	p16
A Voice from the Great War	Alan R. Harrow	p19
The Children's Graves at the Mull	Mike Peacock	p22
Remnant Temperate Rainforest in Kintyre	Dr Jenn Lee	p23
By Hill and Shore	Angus Martin	p28
Tributes to Frances Hood	Janet Logan Kenny Graham	p32
Letter to the Editor	Lord Weir	p33
Editorial Miscellany	-	p34

Copyright, unless expired, belongs the authors.

Correspondence	Subscriptions & Distribution
Angus Martin	Angus Martin
13 Saddell St	13 Saddell Street
Campbeltown	Campbeltown
Argyll PA28 6DN	Argyll PA28 6DN

Editor's e-mail address: judymartin733@btinternet.com
Treasurer's e-mail address: elit.abeth.marrison@yahoo.co.uk
Society website is at kintyreantiquarians.uk

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The Mysterious Argyllshire Magazine (1833)
Angus Martin

In the previous issue's 'Five Local Newspapers' (p 24), I mentioned in passing the Argyllshire Magazine, founded in Campbeltown in 1833 by one George Kay, printer, about whom I know nothing. Since it was a monthly journal, rather than a newspaper, it was excluded from my review, but more on the publication deserves to be recorded. There isn't, however, a lot of information available.

On 6 January 1934, in an article on the Campbeltown Courier's diamond jubilee, 'Sixty Years a Newspaper', the editor, Alick MacLeod, devoted three paragraphs to the publication. He clearly had the earliest three issues - of January, February and March 1 833 - but had no knowledge of how long the magazine lasted. It consisted, he said, of 32 pages, measuring 8 1/2 inches by 5 inches, and was 'certainly more literary than "newsy'".

Printers in Campbeltown are absent from records in the first half of the 19th century, except for William Clark, who was so described when he married Agnes Paterson in 1837. I speculated in the previous issue that he might have been involved with the Argyllshire Magazine, but there is no evidence. He is absent from Pigot & Co.'s commercial directory of 1837, the year of his marriage. In fact, no printers appear in that record of local businesses, nor are there any in the 1825 directory. Clark would establish the first local newspaper, The Campbeltown Journal & Argyle & Buteshire Advertisers, in 185 1 .

The editorial aims of the Argyllshire Magazine, as set out in the first issue, from which MacLeod quoted, were 'to instruct or amuse those who honour our pages with their perusal, by offering to their notice selections from works of literature, history and biography, literary essays, tales, poetry etc. e.. and all the traditions we can collect connected with Argyllshire'.

The statement continued: '[I]n so far as we can abstain from infringing on the rights of newspaper, we shall, in each number, give a historical summary of Parliamentary proceedings, and a digest of foreign and domestic intelligence for the preceding month, together with a state of markets, and such official appointments, births, marriages and deaths, as we think may be interesting to our readers. Besides inserting as much original matter as we can furnish or procure, we shall on every practicable occasion direct the attention of our readers to the proceedings of the different public bodies within the County, upon whose actions we shall animadvert with candour and fairness, but should our sentiments at any time differ from those of others, our pages will be open to all communications, provided they are written in a temperate strain. Nothing shall be inserted bearing upon the private actions, conduct or motives of living characters: but the acts of public bodies, and the public opinions and actions of their members are public property, and we shall not hesitate to record them, either to approve or condemn, as we may see cause to do so.'

On 13 January, the Courier reproduced a punning rebuff to a would-be contributor to the Magazine: '"A Poetical Address to the Poor" seems to be the production of a very poor poet. As Helicon and Parnassus are far distant, we would recommend our correspondent to quaff a few libations at Crosshill Burn or at the adjacent Hotel, and thereafter take half-a-dozen turns up Bengullion by way of improving the wind of his Pegasus. We strongly suspect the same Pegasus to be a little lame, as he halts most confoundedly in some of his feet.'

On 3 February, MacLeod, under the heading 'A Hundred Years Ago', published a column of births, marriages and deaths extracted from the issues in his possession. Some of these, the deaths particularly, will be of interest.

7 January 1833

BIRTHS
'At Knockriochmore, on 26th December,1832, Mrs John Kelly, of a daughter.'
'At Campbeltown, on 4th December, 1832, the wife of Mr James McAlister, of His Majesty's revenue cruiser Swift, of a daughter.'

MARRIAGES
'At Campbeltown, on 11th December, 1832, Mr William Brunton, Rector of the Academy, to Catherine, third daughter of the late Mr William McNaughton.'
'At Campbeltown, on 18th December, 1832, Mr William Stewart, wood merchant, to Janet, youngest daughter of Mr Archibald Colville, merchant. '

DEATHS
'On 4th December, 1832, in her 17th year, at the Governor's House, Edinburgh Castle, the residence of her father, Amelia Alexandria [recte Alexandrina,] wife of James Archibald Campbell, Esq., younger of Inverneill.'
'At Lanark, in the Clydesdale Hotel, on Saturday, 8th December, 1832, Sir Charles McDonald Lockhart of Lee and Carnwath, Baronet. He arrived at ten o' clock apparently in good health. He was buried at Killean. '
'At the residence of his son-in-law, Mr McKellar, Lochgilphead, on 18th Dec., 1832, Mr John Smith, in the 94th year of his age.'
'At Kildalloig, on 29th December, 1832, Catharine, wife of Dugald Campbell, Esq., of Kildalloig. '
'At Campbeltown, on Sunday, 30th December, 1832, in the 19th year of his age, Mr John Dunlop, student of Divinity. The deceased was a young man of great learning his manners were mild, affable and engaging and throughout the whole period of his life his moral character and conduct well became the honourable views to which he aspired.

February 1833

BIRTHS
'On 10th January, 1833, at Campbeltown, the wife of Mr Edward Stewart, wood merchant, of a son.'
'On 13th January, at Kilkerran, Mrs Ronald McAlister, of a daughter.'

MARRIAGES
'On 11th December, 1832, at Guernsey, John Graham Campbell, Esq. of Shirvan, to Maria Zelima Mansil, daughter of Henry Arlot Mansil, Esq. of that island.'
'On 15th January, 1833, at Campbeltown, John McKinlay, weaver (5th marriage) to Ann Munro.'

DEATHS
'On 14th January, 1833, at Glasgow, Mr William Galbraith, wine merchant.'
'On 22nd January, 1833, at Killounan, Mrs Henry Ballantyne, relict of Mr Donald Campbell.'

March 1833

BIRTHS
'At Drumore House, on 27th February, 1833, Mrs Galbraith of Machrihanish, of a son.'
'At Rockbank, on 3rd February, 1 833, Mrs Alex. Kirkwood, of a daughter.'

MARRIAGES
'At Campbeltown, on 19th February, 1833, Mr John McMillan, saddler, to Miss Mary Pickan.'
'On the 26th February, 1833, by the Rev. James Smith, Mr Humphry Langlands, Bleachfield, to Mary, 3rd daughter of the late Mr James Andrew, Anderston.'

DEATH
'At Campbeltown, on 1st March, 1833, Mr Daniel McCallum, candle maker.'

Twenty-five years later, in the Courier's 'Argyll man's diary' of 28 May 1959, the writer declared that he had 'the privilege of looking through' a copy of the 'Argyleshire Monthly Magazine', dated March 1833. Subscribers, he noted, could obtain their copy at the shop of William Ralston, bookseller in Campbeltown, and the 'agents' included 'the Parochial Teacher, Southend'. The contents of that issue included an instalment of a serial on the siege of Dunaverty in 1647; poems, including 'The Island of Devarr'; an article on portrait-painting and one dealing with the liming of peaty land.
That copy, 'and others in the same series', belonged to Captain Hugh MacShannon, who was with the Burns & Laird shipping line in the Irish Sea trade, then harbourmaster at Campbeltown from 1954 until 1967, and ended his working life as a Customs & Excise officer (he appears in the Linda McCartney photograph of whisky warehousemen taken at Lochend in 1968). He was a Southend man, whose parents were James McShannon and Margaret McMillan, and he married Maw McIntyre McKinlay in 1925. She was known as 'Polly' and kept the dairy in High Street referred to in James McIntyre's memoir in the previous issue (page 16). Captain MacShannon was a knowledgeable local historian, collector of antiquarian books and a supporter of this Society until his death, aged 87, in 1989. I wonder if the copies of the Argyllshire Magazine which Alick MacLeod described in 1934 were also Captain MacShannon's, and more to the point - I wonder what became of them after his death?

---

TELEPHONES IN CAMPBELTOWN, 1932. 'The growing popularity of the telephone in Campbeltown is shown by the fact that subscribers now number 198 as against 1 86 a year ago.' Argyllshire Leader, 23 July 1932

---

Tributes to Frances Hood

In my obituary of Frances in the previous issue, I invited. Friends of hers to submit brief tributes: two were received and are published below. I promised also a fuller appreciation for this issue, but instead her life will be celebrated on 15 January at a 'memorial evening', which will consist of a presentation of photographs, and songs from The Sarachs (see inside front cover). Editor

Mrs Janet Logan, 31 March 2024:
Frances was a very firm friend of mine. She came to my 'keep fit' classes and summer walks from 1960 to 2004. In 1978, Frances and I entered and completed the Glasgow Marathon. We next cycled around Arran, staying at Corrie and climbing Goat Fell from there. Another year, we cycled around Kintyre, staying a night in Glenbarr on the way home.
My bike, given to me in 1941 when I was aged 13, took me to school in Bromley, Kent, throughout the war, even during 'doodlebug' raids; took my four youngsters to Dalintober School, and is now in Campbeltown Museum.
In a later year, Frances joined me at King's House, Glen Coe, to walk the end of the West Highland Way. We finished the walk and stayed in the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel before climbing Ben Nevis, where Frances had vertigo, and I lost my watch in the snow. This was found by a Canadian, who refused a reward as his wife had received great kindness in Scotland.
On another occasion, camping at Ardnamurchan, the milk we'd left outside the tent was gone by the morning. What, to my mind, amused Frances most was when the elderly warden of the Youth Hostel in the Summer Isles, where we were staying, took my wet woollen tights to wash and dry them. He hung them from the kitchen ceiling, and they stretched all the way to the stone floor!
Frances was a kind and caring nurse and an active member of the Kintyre Antiquarian & Natural History Society - knowledgeable about charcoal-burning platforms and local standing stones and much more.

Kenny Graham, Spring 2024:
Frances had the rare gift of bringing out the best in you, but she didn't realise this herself.
In her company, you quickly became aware that she did not like sloppy thinking or unnecessary hyperbole; this was done politely, and you naturally adapted.
Like all really interesting people, she could be difficult and taciturn, but this was because she cared deeply and worried about many aspects of life - political and personal.
The past and the future merged in her understanding, with a keen awareness of Kintyre's prehistory and her practical considerations of how to live and conserve today, if not for a better tomorrow, at least for a tomorrow.
A loyal and conscientious friend, much-loved Frances was one of the best of us.

Letter to the Editor
I was interested to read [in No. 95] the accounts of the wartime evacuation to Kintyre of nearly one thousand city children on 2 September 1939, travelling by steamer to Campbeltown. On the previous day there had been a rather more minor evacuation from Kintyre of two children, my brother Alistair and myself (then aged eleven and seven years old). We left on board the Dalriada and crossed over to Arran. We were taken ashore by motor launch at Pirnmill and from there proceeded a few miles south to Dougarie Lodge. This large house, belonging to the Duchess of Montrose, had been made over as a temporary boarding school to children from Kelvinside Academy, our Glasgow day school, the premises of which had been requisitioned by the Army. Some sixty pupils assembled there to hear Neville Chamberlain announce on the radio that the country was at war.
Unlike many of the evacuees to Kintyre, my brother and I did not suffer from homesickness. Dougarie Lodge was situated in beautiful surroundings, with the river Iorsa flowing past the ground outside, which was used as a football pitch, and the impressive granite western mountain ridge overlooking us. The youngest pupils had their lessons in the boathouse built over the shore and it was a vivid experience to improve our elementary knowledge of reading and writing while hearing the waves striking the shore below, as well as to catch saithe during the morning break.
The school left in early December for a less remote location when the first snow was seen on the mountains at the start of what proved to be a very severe winter.
If there was any feeling of homesickness, it was on account of the proximity of Kintyre, always within sight from Dougarie. For I had left there after one of the best summer holidays of my life. The previous month, the family stayed at Blasthill Farm, Southend, during a period of continuously warm and sunny weather. I have never forgotten the view towards Dunaverty, the North Channel and Northern Ireland. We bathed almost every day on the beautiful beach, looking out to a procession of ships, both merchant and warships, and once at the sensational appearance of a four-masted ship under full sail. Corn was being harvested on the farm and, for a seven-year-old, it was a thrill to be allowed to guide the horse and cart. So, you see, I left with regret Kintyre for Arran, and from the classroom I used to look wistfully in the direction of Sanda, knowing that Southend was round the corner.
When the school left for the mainland, we travelled from Lochranza on board, once again, the Dalriada. We noticed that the lifeboats were swung out on their davits, and we were informed that there was a U-boat at large in the Firth of Clyde. As we proceeded, accompanied by destroyers and overshadowed by RAF planes, we looked back apprehensively at our last sight of lovely Kintyre. But we reached Greenock without incident.
The Hon. Lord (Bruce) Weir, Achahoish, Lochgilphead.

MRS AILSA STEWART (née Massey), when she died on 5 May, aged 109, was the second-oldest person in Scotland. She was born in India in 1914, the first year of the First World War, and during the Second World War was a torpedo assessment specialist with the Women's Royal Naval Service, which brought her to H.M.S. Landrail, Machrihanish. She met and married, in 1944, Archibald Ian Balfour Stewart, procurator fiscal in Campbeltown, and subsequently a notable local historian and genealogist who edited this magazine from 1988 until 1998, the year of his death.
PROFESSOR RONALD J. ROBERTS, veterinary pathologist by profession, who died on 3 August, aged 83, was an occasional contributor to this magazine and a most entertaining and informative speaker at Society winter talks. His main interest in retirement was the lives of notable people with Kintyre connections, biographies of whom he posted on the internet. These essays, supplemented by others - there are 63 in all - were collected and published in book form last year as A Sense of Place: Kintyre's Remarkable Diaspora, in which (pp. 247-52) his own life was summarised by Professor Ronald Hardy. Ronnie's enthusiasm for and commitment to the town of his upbringing and its families will be missed.
THE ARGYLL COLONY PLUS, journal of the North Carolina Scottish Heritage Society, appeared for the last time in spring of this year, its retiring editor, Anne Landin, having failed to find a successor; and the Society itself will shortly be dissolved. The journal was founded in 1986 by Lt. Col. Victor E. Clark (1919-2001), with the encouragement and support of A. I. B. Stewart, and the N.C.S.H.S. was established six years later. Several of our Society's historians and genealogists, notably Ian MacDonald and A. I. B. Stewart, were frequent contributors to the journal, and they and other members also travelled to North Carolina to attend Scottish heritage symposia organised by the N.C.S.H.S.
THE DEWAR PROJECT. I welcome the appearance this summer of the first volume of this project, John Dewar's Islay, Jura and Colonsay, edited by Ronald Black and Christopher Dracup, and published by John Dewar Publishers at E27.50. The book consists of more than fifty stories collected in Gaelic in the 1860s by Dewar, an Arrochar working man who taught himself to read and write both Gaelic and English. These stories have been, as the 'blurb' says - with complete justification - 'meticulously edited and set in their historical context'. In fact, so fascinating are the notes, that I have been reading them before I read the stories themselves. For more background on the project - which will extend to ten volumes, geographically organised, and including one on Kintyre, provisionally scheduled for publication in 2028 - refer to issue No. 93, attached to which is a sample tale, 'The Last MacAlister of Largie'. Regardless of the geographical scope of the title, I unreservedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of the West Highlands and Islands.

To visit some of my index pages,
choose from this drop down list, and click GO:
Saga of our Kintyre Kin Kintyre in the 17th Century Kintyre Place Names Kintyre; Norman S. Newton Saddell Place Names Southend Parish Place Names Argyll Ancestor Place Names Kilcolmkeil Churchyard, Southend Argyle Settlement in History and Story Scottish Cemetery of Willow Creek Boone County Then and Now 1835 1976 Burlington, Wisconsin First 150+ Years J I Case, 1st Hundred Years Hunter, A Genealogical History of the Area Story of Roscoe The Picture Story of Roscoe Roscoe Twp., Winnebago Co., Ill., 1877 Rockton, Illinois History

Published with permission of The Kintyre Antiquarian & Natural History Society.
2025, Harold A. Ralston, Wisconsin, USA.
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