This is an account of the old township of 'Tireragan', near the south west corner of the Ross of Mull, on the Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.
Although the former inhabitants of Tireragan have long been dispossessed and only ruins of their houses remain, to be able to work caringly with the land something of their history and background needs to be understood. They were its natural trustees, they did not leave it willingly and there is a legacy to be honoured. Any project in rural regeneration in the Highlands needs a careful study of the history of its area. Well born contemporaries of the old inhabitants tended to disparage the people as idle, primitive peasants. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Tireragan.
The name of the ruined clachan or hamlet that existed on the south of the Ross, between Knockvologan and Ardalanish, is given on the Ordnance Survey Map as 'Tir Fhearagain', which would mean 'Fhearigain's Land' or coast, or possibly 'Fergus' Land'. However, this spelling does not exist in any of the older written records of the area, which date back to the mid 17th century. Nor do they refer to the clachan but to the whole area — a 'township' comprising several such clachans.
In the records the name is spelt in various ways 'Toirorgan, 'Tirergan', 'Tireragan', 'Tiergan', or 'Tiraragan' etc., sometimes with the first 'r' doubled. Is the OS spelling merely a modern transliteration of spoken Gaelic, or is the modern name a mistake? Mairi MacArthur has pointed out that in Charlie MacLean's unpublished collection of Mull Gaelic place names a footnote refers the name to 'Fergna' Britt, 4th Abbot of Iona, who died in 633. On the other hand, Dugald MacCormick, a nineteenth century resident of the Ross of Mull, remembered the name as meaning 'the land of angry waves' ('Tir Fheirg-thonn') and said that that was the understood local meaning. (Personal correspondence from Prof. Neil McCormick). Perhaps we will never know for sure. I have decided to use the most common of the old spellings, 'Tireragan', one of the easiest to spell and say (the 't' is pronounced like the 'ch' in 'chuckle').
References to Tireragan are scarce, even in the Archives at Inveraray Castle. The inhabitants spoke Gaelic, and few were literate. It was marked on Johan Blaer's 1654 map and a document from 1662 — dating from the period when the McLeans of Duart were still the owners — gives it a rent of £120/-/-, with 'Casualis' of £30/-/-, so it has at least a 350 year history and certainly dates much further back. (IA,B2531). Tireragan must have been similar to other local communities on Mull and it is reasonable that much of the general information about the area as a whole is also relevant to Tireragan.
Such communities were usually called 'townships,' and were divided into 'clachans' or 'settlements', a practice dating at least from the 17th century: "Some townships divided into small hamlets or 'clachans' and tenants paid rent in groups. Common grazing lands were owned by the group as a whole." (Shaw, p.85)
There are remains of 5 settlements which probably made up the 'township' of Tireragan, 4 of which are on Taigh Sithe land, the other on land currently belonging to Fidden Farm (See sketch map). Some isolated ruins look as if they were once part of other, earlier clachans, thoroughly demolished.
The settlements comprise from 6 to 10 ruins. There are also at least ten isolated ruins and several piles of stones which look like thoroughly demolished houses. Given that people had large families, there must have been well over 100 people in the township as a whole between 1830 and 1840, when the population of the area was at its highest (See Table 1). A list from the first years of the 19th century gives 95 inhabitants, making Tireragan more populated at the time than Ardalanish, Fidden or Knockvologan, neighbouring townships (IA, Bundle 904).
All the ruins with standing walls probably date from the 18th & 19th centuries as, prior to at least 1744, normal buildings were of 'earth and wattle' which would leave no trace (Cregeen, AEI, p.xxi).
Indeed, even in 1800, John Leyden comments of his visit to Mull:
"The huts of the peasants in Mull are most deplorable. Some of the doors are hardly 4 ft. high and the houses themselves composed of earthen sods in many instances, are scarce 12. There is often no other outlet of smoke but at the door, the consequence of which is that the women are more squalid and dirty than the men, and their features more disagreeable." (Leyden, J. p.34-5)
Many of the stone ruins will date from later than 1800, then, and traces of housing prior to the eighteenth century are negligible.
Population of the Local Parish (Kilfinichen and Kilveceon) and of Mull at various dates.
(Source, J. Ramsay, 1863 (IA, B. 1548) and MacCormick, p. 204.)
| Date | 1750 | 1755 | 1771 | 1791 | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 |
| Parish | 1,616 | 1,685 | 1,676 | 3,002 | 3,174 | 3,205 | 3,967 | 3,819 |
| Mull | 5,044 | 5,287 | 5,526 | 8,016 | 8,539 | 9,383 | 10,612 | 10,538 |
| Date | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 |
| Parish | 4,113 | 3,054 | 2,518 | 2,448 | 1,982 | 1,735 | 1,529 | 1,403 | 1,319 |
| Mull | 10,064 | 8,639 | 7,331 | 6,441 | 5,624 | 5,076 | 4,712 | 4,173 | 3,754 |
Tireragan Township — the Visible Record.
1. Cille Mhuire (Mary's Cemetery, or Cell).
This is the most northerly settlement, on Fidden land, outside the present boundary. It has 8 houses. One of the houses is well built and local informants say it was a school. A quill pen is said to have been found in it.
A small walled area at the top of the 'infield' was a cemetery, and three graves belong to 'the last inhabitants of the area'. But I have not been able to identify them with certainty among many stones signifying graves. At the spot are the remains of a small building which could have been a chapel. It is high enough for a clear view of Iona Cathedral across the moor. It is said that St. Columba did not allow nuns on Iona — perhaps the place has an older connotation and possibly the name literally refers to 'Mary's Hermitage'?
About 600m. E, along a small glen, is a large cairn, the 'Wishing Cairn', with a tiny spring running from it. It contains literally thousands of stones. Legend is that to place a stone on the cairn with one's name (or mark?) carved on it made a wish come true. There are initials on some of the stones.
2. Crò Na Bà Glaise ('Tir Fhearagain.')
This settlement, where the 'Highland Renewal' project began to restore some of the old ruins — is called 'Crò Na Bà Glaise' ('Pen of the Grey Cow') in older editions of the Ordnance Survey map; incorrectly, 'Tir Fhearagain' in recent ones. It lies across Glas Ròinach hill to the south of Cille Mhuire and has 10 ruins, one of which is a cottage of rather better quality than the others, with a chimney. The end wall with the chimney has obviously been added to the rest of the house, as a different, squared stone was used and there are remains of mortar. It was probably reoccupied in 1885 for about 11 years by John Campbell and then, a little later, by Donald MacDonald (see below) (It was MacDonalds from the neighbouring farm of Knockvologan who gave Hugh Cameron and Callum Campbell their information about Tireragan.) One of the ruins is very small and could have been an animal pen; with three larger ruins, it lies about 150m. up the hill to the NE of the main group of houses. Another, isolated, ruin lies 300m. to the west, nestling on the corner of Glas Ròinach.
The settlement has an old bridge over the burn, and a stone in the village centre which we named the 'pulpit stone', as it was surely used as a 'speaker's platform' (see illustration). There is a walled area to the east side which may have been an animal enclosure or a 'kail yard', and another, smaller, at the west end. The atmosphere here is quite magical. A number of pottery shards have been found.
South from the settlement, an old wall runs right over the hill to the south, and continues towards the sea, sometimes as a dyke. It is probably the one referred to later, dividing the land.
3. Breac-achadh (The 'Speckled Field').
This lies on the hillside to the right of the above mentioned wall, about 500m. SE of Crò Na Bà Glaise. There are 8 similar ruins here. Some pottery shards were found in a ditch below the lowest of the ruins. The place is very overgrown with bracken in the summer, and a little forbidding in atmosphere. The houses overlook the glen running west to the sea from 'Tir Fhearagain' as well as the main glen running south to the beach at Traigh Gheal. They are exposed to winds, but a good place to spot invaders from south and west in olden times.
In the west running glen are many 'lazy beds' and the ruins of at least four other houses, including a drying kiln. It was in intensely cultivated area.
The central glen has a single ruin along its eastern edge, set in a narrow gully by a burn. It would have been a good location for a small mill. About 400m. SE is another isolated ruin with a squarer shape than other houses.
4. Tor Mhic an Fhamair. (Hill of the Giant's Son).
Here, 600m. south of Breac-achadh, are 3 ruins, with 3 more about 100m. to the east. The first three, on a little knoll, have been built into a sheep fank, but their outlines are still quite clear.
South again lies Traigh Gheal, the 'white' beach, with two paths constructed down its steep slopes. The easterly one winds up the hill, while the path to the west is straighter, and probably served all the above settlements. By the beach itself are some lazy beds and a large pile of stones, perhaps providing a store for house construction. At the west side of the beach is a rough breakwater and cleared area for boats to be pulled up in stormy weather.
5. Tobhta Alic (Alex's Ruin).
This is a settlement about 700m. roughly E.SE of Tor Mhic an Fhamhair, high on the hill above the march of the property with Ardalanish farm to the east. Here there are eight ruins, facing south, with spectacular views over to Colonsay, Jura and Islay. Below them is a wide area of walled field which runs down towards the march glen.
Seven of the ruins are typical but the eighth, in the best position of all, is a substantial house with mortared walls and a ruined chimney end, built of squared stones of a different material from the other houses. Callum Campbell heard that this house belonged to the 'richest man on the Ross, with 200 pounds in the bank'. Attie McKechnie has identified him as Alex McLean of Pennycross, a well respected citizen. The District Archives show that he was a member of the Parochial Board for Poor Relief in the 1840's.
The name, 'Tobhta Alic' is obviously more recent than the ruins. The settlement may once have been 'An Tuachdain', after the glen below it, but none of the Ordnance Survey maps gives a name. One of the ruins is very small with a round end, and an entrance narrowed by two large stones — possibly a sheep pen. Another structure lies, half overgrown, about 200 yards to the south, a large rectangle, perhaps a former cattle pen. Another ruin lies half overgrown further down in the woods, and there is yet another nestling against the hillside further down the march fence. This settlement is quite isolated. Probably, the eastern path down to Traigh Gheal gave it access to the sea.
Other Ruins.
500m. South East of Crò an Bà Glaise are the foundations of an isolated ruin, in a hollow leading down to the march glen. It may once hive been connected with ruins on the land of Ardalanish farm east of Loch an Sgàlain which may or may not have formed part of old Tireragan.
There is a small lochan in the hills, about 800m. slightly SW of Brèac-achadh, near which there are lazy beds. Here a man called 'Seamus, the Indian man' is said to have built a house after serving in the army in India and coming back with £20. Exactly when is not known. The lochan is known as 'Indian Loch', the ruined house is above the trees west of it.
There are house remains in a tiny cove at the SW tip of the property, nestling to avoid the prevailing winds. A boat could be beached there. In this isolated spot there are lazy beds. Perhaps the family from here farmed the nearby islet of Calmain (the Dove), which also has lazy beds. In 1549, Calmain was said by Sir Donald Munro to be populated and fertile. In 1772 it was part of Tireragan, but in 1792 it was rented separately by Lt. Col. Campbell, for £4/-/10p. In 1807, it was divided between 'Tiergan' and Knockvologan. It was returned to Tireragan in 1852, but now, once more, forms part of Knockvologan croft. (IA, B2369, 1523)
All the larger woodland areas show evidence of hazel tree coppicing. The stems were used for the construction of roofs and for creels, among other things.
There are also numerous walls and dykes on the property, which seem to vary in age and construction. Some are made of stones similar to those of the house ruins, but others, more overgrown, have very large stones indeed and may be from an earlier period.
Who were the inhabitants of Tireragan and how did they live?
The list of remains indicates that Tireragan, now desolate, was once a populous township. A record from 1779 lists 45 people, but by 1804, there were 17 men, 30 women and 32 children under 12 - 79 in all, compared with the neighbouring townships of Fidden & Pottie - 80, Ardalanish - 97 and 43 at Knockvologan. A few years later, with 26 males, 33 females and 36 children (95 in total) it was the most populous of them all (Fidden -76, Ardalanish - 90, Knockvologan - 45). The low number of men probably reflects the impact of the Napoleonic wars - many would have been serving. The growth in population is probably due to the rise in income for landlords from kelping (see below). By 1861, Fidden and Knockvologan farms together only had 17 houses with 96 people in them and Tireragan itself was empty (IA Bundle 1526)
Records of life prior to the 18th century are very scanty. Like the rest of the Hebrides, Mull was under Norse rule from the 9th to the 13th century. From 1345, it was part of the territory of the Lordship of the Isles', but I have not found records specific to Tireragan (Grimble and Grant give general information about this period in Western Highland history).
In 1542, Dean Monroe described Mull as, "...ane grate rough iyle noch the les it is fertiL and fruit-full..."
Black 'Kyloe' cattle were exported (Kyloe being an anglicization of an an old Gaelic word that could have meant 'Kyle' or 'Highland breed') back into the early middle ages. The island was part of a military based clan system, where the right to live and cultivate land was exchanged for the obligation to serve the clan chiefs as soldiers in time of need. The Ross of Mull was the most fertile area of Mull. MacDonald in an interesting book about the agriculture of the Hebrides (1811) writes:
"granite... yields the most fertile soil on Mull, as we found on examining the district of Ross." (p.t522)
The Ross itself was devastated in 16th century feuds between the MacDonalds and the McLeans, who owned it. Steadily, the power of the MacLean clan declined, and a deep feud with the powerful Campbell Clan developed. The military resources of the MacLean' s were seriously weakened at the battle of Inverkeithing in 1651, during which 140 men from the Ross of Mull alone were killed. The Campbells used the weakness to their advantage. After holding off one attempt at subjugation, McLean's men were subdued shortly after. The official 'complaint against the occupation records:-
"...A formidable armada arrived, landing at four different quarters of the island, who commenced the work of death by hanging and maiming the passive cattle, and slaughtering defenceless and inoffensive women and children." There was a practice of 'hocking' - cutting off the hind legs of cattle and leaving them to die. (McCormick, p.185-6).
In 1674, the Ross of Mull became the property of the Campbell Dukes of Argyll, (Cregeen, AEI, p.xiv). But the Duke himself fell into disfavour after the Restoration, and it was not until 1691 that the Duke of Argyll obtained a 'Commission of Fire and Sword' against the MacLeans. Houses were burned and stock removed all down the Ross of Mull (Grimble). The Archives at Inveraray contain records of the animals removed from the south of Mull during this period. The despoliation no doubt contributed to a subsequent famine. The Rev. Dougal Campbell comments (in the Old Statistical Account of 1793) that at the time of King William, the parish was almost depopulated by famine and plague. A rent record for Tireragan from 1662 shows a rent of £120 but by 1679, this had dropped to £26 /6/8(with 3/4 of a 'Passant'), only a fifth of the sum, although it is possible that the difference may represent a change from calculation in Scottish pounds to £ sterling. (IA B2531)
There is an account of the population from this period. William Sacheverall, Governor of the Isle of Man, visited Mull in 1688 and travelled in the island, writing a book about his experiences in 1702 (cited in McCormick, p.l82):-
"During my stay, I generally observed the men to be large-bodied, stout, subtle, active, patient of cold and hunger. There appeared in all their actions a certain generous air of freedom, and contempt of luxury and ambition... they bound their appetites by their necessities, and their happiness consists, not in having much, but in coveting little. The women seem to have the same sentiments with the men; though their habits were mean ... in many of them there was a natural beauty and a graceful modesty... The usual outward habit of both sexes is the plaid; the women's much finer, the colours more lively, and the squares larger than the men's... This serves them for a vail and covers both head and body. The men wear theirs after another manner, especially when designed for ornament; it is loose and flowing... Their thighs are bare, with brawny muscles... What is covered is only adapted to necessity - a thin brogue on the foot, a short buskin of various colours on the leg, tied above the calf with a striped pair of garters. 'What should be concealed' is hid by a large shot-pouch, on each side of which hangs a pistol and a dagger... A round target on their backs, a blue bonnet on their heads, in one hand a broad sword, and a musket in the other. Perhaps no nation goes better armed."
After gaining ascendancy over the MacLeans, The Campbells of Argyll resettled the area with their own vassals. Cregeen says: "To reward friends, to ensure a military following, and to preserve order in the annexed lands, allies and kinsmen had been settled on them." By 1730 the Duke had given the Ross of Mull in tack to 'Donald Campbell, brother of Scammadale'. (AEI) This old kind of tacksman still resembled a feudal baron. His tenants had a great deal of service to perform for him as a price for his patronage. Lord Forbes of Culloden examined the Mull estates in 1737, and declared that the tacksmen required rent in kind from the peasants as well as labour, and 'ground them down' and, after a visit to Mull a little later in the same century, Sir John Sinclair described what had to be provided:
'Tilling, dunging, sowing, harrowing, providing peats, thatching, straw ropes or heath ropes, securing his corn in the barnyard, weeding the land, mowing, lending turf (sic) from the common for manuring, making and ingathering the hay, the spontaneous produce of the meadow and marshy ground, cutting down, harvesting, threshing out, manufacturing and carrying to market or seaport, a part of the produce of the farm. They paid in kind, straw bags, ropes made of hair for drawing the plough, reeds, tethers for cattle, straw for thatching. They also paid 'vicarage' in the smaller tythes, lamb, wool, a certain number of fowls and eggs, veal, kid, butter and cheese and on the sea coast the tythe of their fish and carrying of sea weed for manure. Sometimes lint was spun for the lady of the house and some woolen yarn was exacted." In return, if the tacksman was a good one, they might receive remission of rent in bad years, some meal to tide them over, and protection from aggression. (Cited in the Duke of Argyll' s Evidence to the Napier Commission, 1883)
The 3rd Duke of Argyll, a noted 'improver', had commuted all the services into 12 or 24 days labour a year by 1755. (c.f. Cregeen, Argyll Estate Instructions).
'Modernisation'.
However violently inclined were earlier cultures — Frances Shaw writes of many island clan feuds in the sixteenth century after the overall control of the Lords of the Isles failed - all over the Highlands, the defeat of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion was a final proof of the end of an historical era. Gaelic, the wearing of the kilt and the playing of the bagpipes were (not very effectively on the islands) prohibited for a time, and the clan chiefs were forcibly integrated into metropolitan society — their children had to be educated in Edinburgh or London. Hunter reports a trip in Europe taken by the young, Eton educated Duke of Argyll with Adam Smith as tutor. (1976)
Of course, such a courtly life was very expensive, and could hardly be supported by existing rents, Often partly paid in military service or in kind. Some chiefs went bankrupt or sold out to lowlanders, but the eighteenth century Dukes of Argyll determined to transform their holdings to create greater rents. Their strategy for modernisation was as follows:-
They first abolished the feudal service arrangements and the baronial tacksmen - some of whom emigrated with their tenants, forming the first wave of American Highlanders. (Hunter~ 1994)
This was the economic strategy of the improvers. It was meant to provide more rents from a more wealthy population.
Unfortunately, none of the 'improvements' benefited the local people very much. Even if all had worked, metropolitan expenditures multiplied endlessly and seemed indispensable to the landlords, so that increased rents were not usually invested in the areas that produced them.
Even the 5th Duke of Argyll, who did pay great attention to his estates, put much of his rental into an enormously expensive 'model' development round Inveraray (AEI). Fishing schemes foundered because of the salt tax, the capital cost of proper boats and tackle and the distance from markets. All communications were very poor and the Ross of Mull had hardly a road till the nineteenth century - early maps show a south side track from Shiaba to Tireragan, with a branch to Bunessan, as the only 'road'.
Kelp manufacture collapsed as the Napoleonic wars ended and cheap alternative sources of alkali flooded in from Spain. Flax weaving had little success, for women were already fully occupied - they did ploughing and fetched seaweed for manure as well as watching the cattle, cooking and housekeeping. Potatoes turned from asset to disaster as potato blight struck disastrously in 1845.
Finally, rents, though increased,were often in arrears as individual tenants struggled with poor harvests. Of all the 'improvements', only sheep farming was successftd in increasing rentable value over a long period. Sheep farming required very few people.
Getting Rid of the People.
During the kelping era, Highland landlords wanted increased population, and fought against a wave of emigration by their tenants. They persuaded the landlord dominated parliament to enact a law which made it prohibitively expensive for ordinary people to emigrate.
But, by the 1820s, kelp production was no longer profitable and tenants were a burden again. The legislation was repealed and the major era of the 'Clearances' began. On the Ross of Mull, it was the mid 1840s before the 7th and 8th Dukes of Argyll decided that the time to remove their uneconomic small tenants and cottars had come.
The one thing the Dukes - and all the other landlords - never did, was to provide security of tenure, perhaps the only option that could have helped both them and their tenants. There was little incentive for innovation and extra effort once the traditional tie with the clan chief was lost and tenants were never sure whether they might not be expelled the next Whitsunday - when tenancies were renewed. So much of the people's creativity went into song and story. Their legacy is a cultural heritage so powerful that it still captivates non-gaelic speakers far and wide.
Unfortunately, landlords and their agents rarely saw more than indolence and lack of initiative in their impoverished tenants, choosing to ignore their extensive and well organized trade in illicit whisky, their resourcefulness after emigration and their much valued skill as soldiery (Devine, Hunter 1994).
The insecurity of the tenants was chronic. A list of 'Warnings for Evictions' (1850) in the Inveraray Archives gives some indication why. 'Arrears of Rent' is the most common ground, followed by 'Poaching Salmon', 'Being Destitute', 'Not being a native of the Ross', 'Retailing Whiskey', 'Stealing Turnips', 'Keeping a cow and paying no rent', and 'Fighting and disorderly conduct' (IA, B1804)
A document written in the 1860s by the same Chamberlain - John Campbell, 'Factor Mor', a much feared and hated man, lists his 'Special Rules and Regulations as to the Removing of Crofters':
It was as late as 1876 that the Duke of Argyll' s next factor, James Wyllie - installed in 1872 after the death of 'Factor Mor' — published the first Tenancy Agreement for the few remaining crofters of the Ross of Mull, now almost all on the north side. It surely indicates the attitudes of the Dukes' factors at earlier dates. It is printed, signed by the 8th Duke, and witnessed. The following is a summary:
There is no mention of any tenants' rights in the 'agreement'.
Together, these documents indicate the enormous and relatively arbitrary power of the Duke's factor on the Ross. Clearly, a sensible tenant 'kept his head down' and did only what he was told. Landlord and factor took this as an indication of his inability to take initiative, as the 8th Duke complained bitterly to the Napier Commission. Nevertheless, that Coninñssion's report in 1883 led, at last, to a degree of security of tenure for crofter tenants. Cottars - those without significant land — had by then almost been eliminated. They were regarded, after the kelp boom was over, as totally redundant. In 1847, the 7th Duke's newly installed factor, John Campbell wrote, of penniless cottars wishing to emigrate:
"The Cottar tribe, who are the Locusts of the land ...must remain, a dead weight upon His Grace's estate... With few exceptions they comprise the indolent, uncivilized and pauperism of the Estate and in my humble opinion, His Grace of Argyll never speculated money to such advantage as to get ridd of them by all possible speed." (IA ,B1522)
It is slight wonder that many wished to emigrate, and an indication of the tenacity of local people that so many had to be forced to!
Evidence from Tireragan
As to Tireragan itself, it was rumoured to have been fertile land, and to have produced whisky, 'around the time of Waterloo.' (oral evidence from Johnny Campbell). There is an extant lease from 1772, which should have run from 1772 - 1791 dividing Tireragan between:
"Mr. John Mcllevrain, Pennyghael (1/2 pennyland), Hector Beaton (1/4), Donald MacDonald (in suo) (1/4 including Calmain), with a tack duty of 30 pounds. The property is to pay 6 days service of one man and one house yearly. 20 pounds is to be laid out on the building of march dykes, the half within the first 5 years and the remainder before the end of the 9th year, otherwise to pay 10% p.a. for what is not laid out. To plant 100 trees and to raise Sallies for hooping. To plant 2 bolls potatoes and sow 2 pecks of linseed yearly in mossy ground. To keep no goats. No distillery. To be allowed timber like Anne Campbell.
The 5th Duke held a 'census' in 1779, which lists the tenants as:- Donald McArthur, Donald McGilvra, Charles McEachern, Charles McArthur, John Beatton, and Finlay McMillan, plus a servant - Donald MacDonald and a workman - Archibald McArthur, with their families - 44 inhabitants in all.
Perhaps the lease did not run its course, for it seems as if a tacksman held possession in Oct. 1788. He had not been long there, for in the Argyll Estate Instructions the 5th Duke asks his factor:
"Payback to Cohn Campbell at Achnacross the 33 pounds, fourteen shillings and threepence paid by him for the fourth of Tirergan and give the possession to Fencible soldiers, charging them with a proper additional rent for my reimbursement of that advance."(p. 152) The factor records that this instruction was carried out. Fencible soldiers were recruited for service within Britain, often with the promise of a small piece of land on their return from service. Another reference, in a list of recruits to the army between 1778 and 1783 shows one Donald Cameron of Tirergan serving under Lt. John Campbell Clachan. (IA,B324).
By 1793, Tireragan was listed as: "1 and 1/2 pennylands occupied by small tenants with no long leases at a rent of £29/2/8p. (IA ,B 756)
At the turn of the century (1802), Cohn Campbell reappears. The tack is in the hands of Alex and Cohn Campbell as trustees for Annabehha and Mary Campbell, or at least:"That part of Tirergan which lies to the westward of a new line of march dyke passing through the same and lately executed at the sight of the Duke's chamberlain in Mull." The same two women were themselves granted a 21 year tack in Dec. 1813 (IA, books of Mull leases).
After that there is no information till a note of 1840, which lists the following Tireragan residents as being in arrears of rent: Neil McArthur - £8, Hector MacDonald and Ailga Black - £6151-, Gilbert McArthur - 12/-, John McArthur - £4/SI-.
By 1841, the population of the parish including Tireragan existed more and more on the margins of successful tacksmen sheepfarmers, who eyed township fields as fertile overwintering areas for their sheep. Famine was as close as it had ever been, even with potatoes as the new staple largely replacing bear (a primitive barley) and oats, the grains of earlier times.
Frankly, from the landlords' point of view, the inhabitants were redundant. Four years before the Potato blight struck, the 7th Duke of Argyll made a critical decision.
