4 

TRAVELLERS' TALES 
 

Staffa sprung from high Macdonald,

Worthy branch of old Clan Ranald!

Staffa, king of all kind fellows,

Well befall thy hills and vallies,

Lakes and inlets, deeps and shallows,

Cliffs of darkness, caves of wonder,

Echoing the Atlantic's thunder;

Mountains which the grey mist covers,

Where the chieftain spirit hovers,

Pausing while his pinions quiver,

Strech'd to quit our land for ever.

Each kind influence reign above thee!

All thou lov'st and all that love thee!

Warmer heart, 'twixt this and Jaffa,

Beats not, than in breast of Staffa!

      Sir Walter Scott,

Lines addressed to Ranald Macdonald, Esq., of Staffa,

written in the Album kept at the sound of Ulva Inn, 1810 ¹ 
 

Ulva's 'golden crop'

      Of Ulva in the early years of the last century, our picture owes more to personal observation and comment than in any other period. The genius of Sir Walter Scott was directing the eyes of the world on the North, and added to this, Napoleon's blockade had shut the gates of Europe through which the fashionable crowd from England had formerly thronged. With that stimulus, and under these limitations, the tour to the Hebrides became popular, and written accounts of their adventures were left by several of those who joined the annual stream on the road to the Isles.²

      The Campbell regime, which the old Chief's debts had brought to Ulva, did not last long. Young Campbell of Achnaba sold the property in 1780, less than three years after he had bought it, to Colonel Charles Campbell of Barbreck, who retained possession only until June of 1785. No account survives of their stewardship; more than likely it may have given Ulva a taste of absentee landlordism, that curse of many Highland estates. Barbreck already had a considerable estate on the Argyll mainland, and some land in the Isle of Bute; nearing sixty when he bought Ulva, he had retired from the Madras Army after almost thirty years service with the East India Company.³

      But soon with changing ownership, came a change in the fortunes of the island. The reason was not far to seek when one saw the string of kelp-fires which lit the shores at night. For Ulva was bought from Barbreck by Colin Macdonald of Boisdale, a wealthy man who had followed his father as one of the leading operators of the kelp industry. Old Boisdale, the father - who has a place in history as the first man summoned on board the Du Teillay to meet Prince Charles Edward on his arrival in Scotland - had been at great pains to improve his estate and the condition of his tenants in South Uist. He brought some men from Ireland to teach the art of profitable manufacture of kelp - hitherto almost unknown - from the seaweed which abounds in the Western Isles of Scotland. His success made others follow, and when his son Colin bought Ulva in 1785 he naturally prosecuted the industry there.⁴

      Seaweed is of various kinds and especially the so-called 'wrack-weeds' have always been used for manuring the soil to make it more productive. But, in the Hebrides, even as early as Martin's time, towards the end of the 17th century, it was known that some varieties 'might be successfully used for making glass, and likewise kelp for making soap', by extracting their alkaline content of soda and potash.⁵ The French naturalist Faujas de St. Fond, who had been a guest at Torloisk in 1784 on his way to Staffa, noted the abundance of seawrack on the shores of Mull, with its great rise and fall of tides (between 10½ and 16 feet on the west coast generally), and wrote of merchants coming from Glasgow to purchase it.⁶ One of his countrymen, in an unpublished account of his visit about the same time, reported 'beaucoup de kelp' in Ulva, and this plenty is highlighted also in the Gaelic saying Barr oir a' cuartachadh Eilean Ulbhaidh.⁷ Ulva's 'golden crop' had not hitherto been properly harvested, as was acknowledged when the island was advertised for sale in 1777; but war-time scarcities had led to a startling rise in the price of kelp, from an average on Mull estates of about £4 per ton in the 1770s to £5 in the 1780s, from earlier figures as low as £2 15s, and sent it up to £8 in the later 1790s, and in some parts of the Hebrides even to the 'enormous price' of £ 11 a ton.⁸ The process of making kelp from the appropriate seaweed crop was an important part of the life of Ulva people, and will be described later, but meantime it is sufficient to say that in the 1790s about 500 tons were made annually in Mull, with an average of 170-180 tons coming from the parish of Kilninian; the cost of manufacturing was put by observers at about only 30 shillings [£1½ pounds] a ton, thus allowing substantial profit to the producer.⁹

      Colin, who had been factor and chief tacksman in Uist during his father's lifetime, inherited many of his good qualities and proved himself to be a considerate and progressive landlord. In those days of private charity, before public relief was dreamt of, crowds were daily at his house petitioning for comfort and help both for body and mind. Lady Boisdale (a daughter of Captain Robert Campbell of Glenfalloch) acted the part of a mother to all her husband's - and later her son's - people in Ulva, as well as their physician and arbiter on all occasions. When the sick were unable to go to her, she went to them at the risk of her neck over the rough tracks. ¹⁰

      It was in Boisdale's time that Ulva House, which figures in one of William Daniell's popular prints, was built. It was a two-storeyed building, originally with three bays, with central urn-decorated pediments on each facade. Early travellers generally found it comfortable and commodious, particularly after it had been extended (sometime before 1815) by two end-bays with pitched roofs replacing the former gables - 'indeed a splendid palace', as one visitor remarked, 'compared with the wretched huts within the neighbourhood'. It is said that the architect who designed the building was drowned on his way to Ulva, and that the owner completed it himself. Described by another guest as 'large, but not graceful' the house faced inland with the back windows looking out towards Mull.¹¹ At first, owing to the almost complete lack of trees, the situation was bleak, but the view from the house was impressive. The entrance to Loch na Keal lies just across the Sound of Ulva, winding inland past Eorsa, and beyond the eye is held by the jagged range of mountains which Ben More leads in the march to the west.

      In spite of Boisdale's beneficent rule, the urge to seek employment in the new industrial centres then opening in the south of Scotland, and even to venture to new lands across the seas, did not pass Ulva by.¹² In a small croft near the southern shore, on the farm of Cove (Gaelic Uamh), lived a family of Livingstones, who had been there since at least 1779, and were previously in Mull.¹³ Neil, who could give particulars of the lives of his ancestors for six generations before him, and his wife Mary Morison were to become grandparents of the African missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, who tells us that Neil had found his croft in Ulva insufficient to support a numerous family. When the youngest child (also Neil) was born in 1788, his parents were living in Ferininardary, a farm at the east end of the island shared like the rest among several tenants.¹⁴

      To help them find work in the Lowlands, the family were provided with a testimonial. The 'Ulva certificate', which Neil took with him on his departure in 1792, is the oldest relic of the family preserved in the David Livingstone Centre at Blantyre in Lanarkshire. No doubt a sample of many, it reads as follows: 
 

The Bearer Niel Livingstone a married man in Ulva part of this parish of Kilninian has always maintained an unblemished moral Character and is known for a man of piety and religion He has a family of four sons the youngest of which is three years and three daughters of which the youngest is six years of Age As he proposes to offer his services at some of the Cotton Spinning Manufactories he and his wife Mary Morison and their family of children are hereby earnestly recommended for suitable encouragement Given at Ulva this Eight day of Janry 1792 by

Archd. McArthur minr.

Lauchn. MacLean elder

R. Stewart J.P. ¹⁵ 
 

      The family from Ulva now exchanged life in a simple island cottage in the Hebrides for the top of a three-storey tenement building on a loop of the River Clyde some miles above Glasgow. There David Dale had a few years before set up a factory which combined hard work and long hours with high ideals. ¹⁶ Neil Livingstone senior was remembered by a granddaughter as one who exercised in his family 'all the authority of a Highland chief; but he was anxious that his sons should have a good education, and from his slender means he never grudged the price of any book they required. Neil junior was the only one of them who stayed at home in Blantyre, while the elder sons joined the army and navy during the excitement of the Napoleonic wars. Fortunately grandfather Livingstone lived long enough to delight young David with his never-ending stock of stories, from which all that he knew of the family background was learned. When his time came, the old man was laid to rest in the burial ground near the factory, where a worn tombstone long stood in a small railed enclosure, below a thorn-tree, and later a nearby side-road was named Ulva Place. ¹⁷

      Some light on early days is shed by a story told by his grandfather of which David Livingstone was immensely proud. An old Ulva man, renowned for great wisdom and prudence, when on his deathbed, called all his children round him and said: 'I have searched carefully through all the traditions I could find of our family, and I never could discover that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers. If therefore, any of you or any of your children should take to dishonest ways, it will not be because it runs in your blood: it does not belong to you. I leave this precept with you: Be honest.' Livingstone, although not prone to ancestor-worship ('I descended from kilts and Donald Dhu's? Na, na, I won't believe it.') was glad to have this story to set against the many tales of Highland lawlessness. ¹⁸

      While Ulva did not escape the tide of emigration, it does not follow that it was looked on as uninhabitable. From ancient times the island had been accounted fertile, and a writer of 1794 said that it then afforded grain more than sufficient for the support of its inhabitants.¹⁹ But before discussing the economy of the island, we must take a look at the man who was now to rule it. 
 

A MacDonald laird

      At the turn of the century, a new star was rising on the Ulva horizon. Colin of Boisdale had two families, having been twice married, and while the elder succeeded to his inheritance in South Uist, he arranged that the younger branch should have Ulva. Ranald, the eldest son of his second wife, had his name included in the purchase documents of 1785; and his father's death at the end of July 1800, which was deeply lamented in Ulva, left him as sole proprietor of that estate at the age of 23.²⁰ Already known as 'Macdonald of Staffa' or simply 'Staffa' - the picturesque title which stuck to him for the remainder of his life - Ranald was in many ways a remarkable man, and by that time a prominent figure in Edinburgh, where he had qualified as an advocate two years earlier.²¹ About the same time he became an elder in the Church of Scotland and sat in the General Assembly; although he does not seem to have practised at the bar (whether by choice or otherwise is not clear), he later became a sheriff and was also active in the war-time militia.²² 'In private life,' it was said of him, 'he was distinguished by the genuine goodness of his heart, by his sympathies and by his charities, so unobtrusive and retiring, yet so numerous as almost to become a fault.'²³ Ulva was fortunate in having such a man for its laird in the time of prosperity, however passing it might prove to be.

      It was the character of Staffa, as much as the attractions of his island home, which drew visitors to Ulva. He scattered invitations broadcast to friends and even casual acquaintances to visit him in his native haunts, and became renowned for his hospitality. Among those whom he entertained was Sir Walter Scott himself, who shared his passion for landholding and his Celtic enthusiasm, and had an immense admiration for his host even before he first visited Ulva in 1810. Writing to a friend from Ulva House, he said: 'By dint of minute attention to this property and particularly to the management of his kelp shores, [Staffa] has at once trebled his income and doubled his population while emigration is going on all around him. But he is very attentive to his people who are distractedly fond of him, and has them under such regulations as conduce both to his own benefit and their profit and keeps a certain sort of rude state and hospitality in which they take much pride. ²⁴

      Soon after he became sole proprietor of Ulva, Ranald began to acquire further lands in Mull. First he got Little Colonsay back from the Argyll family in 1801; then in 1803 he secured some of the old Brolass lands, namely Inchkenneth and parts of Gribun (which he seems to have shared with or passed on to his brother Robert, an officer in the Royal artillery); and in 1807 other lands in the Ardmeanach peninsula (including Burg) and the island of Gometra were added to his domain.²⁵

      The laird kept open house on Ulva, which was then one of the natural stepping stones to Staffa and Iona. His mother and sisters made excellent hostesses, but in 1812 he brought a bride to his island home. Elizabeth, or 'Lady Staffa' as she soon became known, was the only daughter and heiress of Dr. Henry Steuart of Allanton, a notable arboriculturist who had married a Seton heiress and was himself made a baronet with remainder to his new son-in-law. Ranald and Elizabeth were married in Edinburgh on 23 January,²⁶ and in the same year he was awarded a gold medal by the Highland Society of Scotland for his estate improvements by way of enclosing and planting over the past two years.²⁷ In 1813 he succeeded the Maclachlan chief as the Highland Society's principal secretary (an office which he held for life, as hon. secretary after its 'Agricultural' role had been acknowledged in its title from 1834).²⁸ The couple were not long in starting a family, and the Lord Lyon saw fit to grant arms to 'Reginald Macdonald-Steuart', as founder of a new cadet branch embracing two famous names, with one quarter of his shield displaying 'a galley moored in front of Fingal's Cave, off the cliff of the Isle of Staffa', which made the heraldic purists shudder.²⁹

      But there were more serious matters to occupy the mind of a landed proprietor who recognized the obligations of stewardship, as well as the social and romantic role of a petty chieftain in the Hebrides. Estate management had become a professional business, and this was no doubt the reason for commissioning a handsome set of plans (most of which have fortunately survived), drawn up by John Leslie & Son, surveyors, in 1812, and splendidly produced in 1813.³⁰ They show his property in great detail and cover the lands of Ulva, Gometra, Colonsay, Staffa and their offshore rocks and islets. The whole estate totalled 5034 acres in extent; the Isle of Ulva itself accounts for 3751 acres, of which there were 132 acres of woodland; a 1559-acre 'sheep walk' filled the whole interior west of the farm of Ardnacailich, with a fringe of lesser farms all around it. The area of each farm is detailed in an 'abstract of contents' in Figure 3_.³¹

      A writer on the agriculture of the Hebrides during Ranald's time described Ulva's soil as 'thin and fertile' and added that by continuing his father's improvements the property showed 'many symptoms of advancing cultivation'.³² Several fields in Ulva, of 12 to 15 acres each, were annually enclosed and laid down carefully in grass seed, and in good heart, and the laird found it more beneficial and productive to keep it in his own hands for pasturing black cattle.³³ With plentiful banks of shell sand, seaware on the shore for the taking, and peat to make compost middens in accordance with Lord Meadowbank's method, it was not difficult to improve the grazings. On the sheep walk, which was advertised to let in 1815, the small Highland breed had been replaced by Cheviots, which brought higher prices and were more prolific, while the negligible snowfall enabled both sheep and cattle to stand the Hebridean winters well.³⁴ The plantations, concentrated almost entirely round Ulva House and Ardellum consisted chiefly of oak, ash, elm, chestnut, sycamore, birch and elder, as well as Scots fir and larch, and throve 'amazingly well' in parts sheltered from the fury of Atlantic storms. Dr. Johnson's taunt on Mull's lack of trees was echoed by later visitors; Sir John Carr, foremost among literary tourists, noted that Staffa has indulged in a romantic spirit of planting', adding condescendingly: 'In such a soil, and in so exposed a situation, the experiment is not likely to succeed, but it is worth trying. It will be a great and gratifying novelty to hear tourists, in distant times, speak of the woody Ova.' Some years later, a scion of the noble house of Marlborough - accustomed to the spacious parks of the English dukeries - admitted that the 'Scotch firs and larches, though exposed to the western ocean, seem really to thrive.'³⁵

 
 

*including wooded area 112 3 31, 1 1 16, 18 1 36 respectively.

(ARF, one acre contained 4 roods, and 1 rood equalled 40 falls.) 
 

The tenants' lot

      Staffa was fortunate in having a 'thriving and industrious tenantry', who lived - according to James Macdonald's Agriculture in the Hebrides (1811) - in 'very comfortable and easy circumstances'. Some of them were the fifth and sixth generation, in regular descent, upon the same piece of ground, who would have refused exchanging it (one visitor was told) for twice its size upon English ground.³⁶ It would be quite wrong to assume that all or even most of the inhabitants of Ulva were MacQuarries; towards the end of Macdonald's regime, in fact, only about one-tenth of the rent-paying tenants were of the clan name - 7 or 8 out of total of 68. Among the most common other names were Macdonald, MacArthur and MacKinnon, Campbell, Lamont and Darroch - but of course the web of intermarriages ensured that many of these also shared MacQuarrie descent and relationships. Most of the farms had three, four or five tenants each, and a few even more; in 1824 there were MacQuarrie tenants in Salen Ruadh, Ferinanardary at the east end, Cragaig on the south coast, Aboss on the north and Glacnagallon facing Gometra. In the years when Ranald was laird (1800-17), 14 MacQuarrie marriages were registered and more than 80 MacQuarrie children were baptised in the parish, most for Ulva parents.³⁷

      While looking after his own interests, Staffa did not neglect those of his tenants. Carr explains that he arranged all the lots of land upon his property in such a manner that the holder of the smallest had two cows, and from that number up to 6, 10 and 12 cows. Many not only provided their families with butter and cheese, but had a surplus to dispose of. Each had also a garden attached to his house where vegetables such as cabbages, turnips and potatoes were grown. Their food consisted of fish, of which they had upwards of 20 different species within a few hundred yards of the shore (in general every tenant had his rowing-boat); of mutton, lamb and beef, of which they consumed a great deal; of geese, ducks, hens, chickens, etc. Of eggs and milk they had a great abundance all the year round. The bread generally used was from barley and oatmeal ground on the island, but the laird sent a young man from Ulva and apprenticed him to a baker in Edinburgh, so that he might return and follow his profession there. Four shops were also opened during Ranald's time - at Soriby, Bearnis, Ormaig and the Sound of Ulva.³⁸

      The houses were poor and simple enough to attract the attention of visitors from the south. Mrs. Murray of Kensington, a pioneer among sprightly female travellers, exam-ined a humble cottage when she was at Ulva in 1802. 'When I entered the hut I was obliged to stoop', she wrote, 'for fear of striking my head against the lintel. The floor was the moor bared by the spade and a few stones were heaped one upon another, around the base of forked birch sticks stuck in the ground to support the branches and heath clods forming the roof. The fabric was divided into two apartments, one for the kitchen, the other for a bedroom, each being in size about six or eight feet square. The kitchen had no aperture but the door, the bed room had a very small window of about a foot square cut in the heath clod roof, which on all sides sloped down to the rough stone wall. In the middle of the kitchen were a few loose stones, put one against another to form a fire place on which lay embers of peat. The smoke had no way of escaping but the door.' An English visitor is said to have pointed out one such home disparagingly to Governor Lachlan Macquarie, remarking, 'What can you expect from anyone brought up in a place like that?' Tradition says the general replied with pride that that was where he himself was born.³⁹

      Most of the strangers of this period who ventured to the Hebrides found nothing to admire in the traditional houses which they saw. Mrs. Murray's description dates from early in Staffa's reign; if a planned economy and new prosperity led to better housing for his tenants and their families, few observers were there to notice it after the return of peace in Europe dimmed the popularity of the Highland tour. But even in 1807, Ulva had watermills 'of the most modern and improved construction' for grinding corn, and the ruins at Cragaig show a mill built of lime-mortared rubble masonry, its interior divided into four bays by cruck-frames or 'couples' of the same kind that supported the roofs of humbler dwellings.⁴⁰

      Until the boom in kelp came to overshadow all else, life on Ulva had remained for the most part pastoral. Even in Ranald's time, it appears, the old shieling custom still prevailed. At the beginning of summer, the people used to set off to the higher ground with their flocks, and bivouac in the vicinity of the best upland pastures. There all the families would live until it became necessary to move back to the low grounds in August, when the hill pastures were becoming bare and the crops required attendance.⁴¹ But this time hallowed practice could hardly continue after the interior of the island was being let as a sheepwalk; and the kelp industry must have brought a radical change to the way of life of all who engaged in it.

      Something has already been said of kelp manufacture from the lairds' point of view, and more must come in later chapters, but its effect on the tenants and cottars should not be minimised. Writing in 1811, when upwards of 150 tons were made on Ulva alone, James Macdonald said that an 'active labourer' could clear £6 by his work on the kelp-making, between the end of April and the middle of July; 'the operation is indeed arduous and fatiguing', he added, 'but the profits are great'.⁴² In the first phase of the industry, the seaware mainly used was rock-weed cut from tidally exposed beaches, including the wetter middle and lower parts of the shore covered for a longer period by the incoming tide.⁴³ This consisted of the bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus), knotted wrack (Ascophyllum nodosus) and serrated wrack (F. serratus), simply called 'ware' in some places.⁴⁴ Although other seaweeds were more suitable for manuring the land, inevitably the preoccupation with kelpmaking has been blamed for causing agriculture to be neglected. Working for hours 'wet to the knees and elbows' cannot have been pleasant, but it is surely an exaggeration to compare it unfavourably with conditions suffered by southern factory hands and even negroes on the plantations, as has been done.⁴⁵

      With an ample supply of the raw material, as in Ulva, the process to be carried out was simple. The growing weed had first to be cut from the rocks or boulders, and then spread out on a rocky or turf bed (not on the sand, which would adhere to it and reduce the quality) for the sun and wind to dry it. Then a row of stones was set out to form a low enclosure or kiln about six feet long and two or three feet broad. In this hollow a lighted peat, piece of wood or a little dry weed was used to set on fire a few fronds of the half-dried weed, and when it burst into a crackling flame more weed was added and the fire replenished and kept alight so that the pile was kept burning evenly all round. In due course a liquid rather like molten metal began to drop into the hollow below forming a hot and pasty mass which was then raked about until it cooled and consolidated into a glassy, brittle substance.⁴⁶ Burning a kiln was a day's work, and if set alight in the early morning the boiling liquid was ready for raking by late afternoon; it took two days for kelp to become hard enough to prize it loose from the bottom of the kiln and break it into lumps for transport and storage.⁴⁷ While the fire was burning a white acrid smoke rose into the air or billowed out leeward, so that from a distance a row of kelp kilns could look like a series of active volcanoes along the island shore.⁴⁸

      It was reckoned that for every ton of kelp not less than 20 tons of weed had to be processed.⁴⁹ The work had therefore to be done as near as possible to the shore where the weed was gathered, and the product could deteriorate if the intervals between each stage of the process were too long. The only tools required were a sickle to cut with, a rake to stir the boiling kelp to ensure an even texture and a shovel to beat the resulting product into a solid mass.⁵⁰ Other aids could be used according to the local initiative, such as a rope of heather or birch laid on the water outside the cut weed, with its ends carried up above the high water mark, so the the heavy mass could be drawn ashore as the tide rose and then carried up to dry land as it receded.⁵¹ A team or 'company' of six men was average for the manufacturing process and the Duke of Argyll (who had kelp shores in Mull and Tiree) calculated that for 300 tons of kelp about 200 men had to be employed.⁵² As many as 10,000 families were reckoned to have been engaged in gathering this bountiful harvest, for women and children as well as menfolk had a role in it.⁵³ It was in the interest of kelp shore proprietors to have many workers on their estates and the process of subdivision probably accelerated while the boom lasted. With no official census to rely on until 1841, after the boom had passed, we have only Dr. Walker's calculation of 266 in Ulva in 1764 and a later proprietor's total of 604 in 1837, the highest population figure ever recorded.⁵⁴

      Carr also tells us something of religious observance on the island. Mull, Ulva, Gometra and Iona then had only three clergymen between them, so the parish ministers of Kilninian and Kilmore, Torosay, and Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon could preach only every second or third week at some of the places ordained for public worship. In his day, although there were no other sermons to be heard at Ulva on Sundays, the schoolmasters regularly visited the tenantry, gathering them in places fixed for the purpose by tradition, where they read and explained the Scriptures to the people, and taught the children the catechism, setting them psalms and religious questions 'to repeat and answer against their next meetings, which are most punctually attended'.⁵⁵ From 1810, however, Ulva was one of the places which had an ordained misionary (usually a young man under training for the ministry) - Archibald McTavish from 1810-2 (later minister of Jura and Colonsay, and then of Kildalton in Islay); Donald Campbell from 1814-6 (succeeded father as minister of Kilfinichern and Kilviceon); Alexander Fergusson (missionary at Ulva and Kilfinichen from 1817-24 (then at Salen and Tobermory, later minister at Tobermory); and Neil Maclean from 1826, who became Ulva's first resident minister when the church was built and a quoad sacra parish formed in 1828.⁵⁶

      Staffa was an example to his neighbours in the great attention which he paid to the education of his tenants' children and to the state of the schools in the presbytery of Mull.⁵⁷ No less than 126 scholars were being regularly taught in Ulva in 1809: there was a school at Ferininardary, near its boundary with the Ulva House property, and a schoolhouse is shown in the 1812 plans at Broo, the narrow channel between Ulva and Gometra.⁵⁸ Parish schoolmasters were not usually provided for the remoter parts of the islands, but there had been a S.S.P.C.K. school in Ulva from at least the 1780s, with Charles Tause or Tawse (a suitable name, it may be thought, but probably really a MacTavish in a different guise) as its first schoolmaster.⁵⁹ Lachlan Macquarie was his assistant from 1789-90 and officiated alone from 1796-7 (the old MacQuarrie chief said there was 'a very good teacher in Ulva' in 1794, when he sent his own son Lachlan there from Little Colonsay).⁶⁰ Dominie Lachlan was an officer in the island's local company of volunteers, but 'being tired with this place' by 1801 and lamenting in private 'the low ebb into which this Ancient Clan has fallen', he had hopes of securing a permanent rank and career in the army like his namesake from Oskamull, whose help he tried to enlist through the influence of Maclaine of Lochbuie.⁶¹ When Carr was in Ulva in 1807, the volunteers numbered a corps of 71 including officers, and Sir Walter Scott was received with a discharge of musketry when he arrived on their shores.⁶²

      Staffa lived on Ulva with some branches of his family 'in elegant hospitality' for the greatest part of each summer and autumn.⁶³ We owe a glimpse of his relations with his neighbours to one of Scott's letters which had to be somewhat abridged by Lockhart for their contemporaries. 'The habit of solitary power is dangerous even to the best regulated minds,' wrote Sir Walter, 'and this ardent and enthusiastic young man has not escaped the prejudices incident to his situation. He beards the Duke of Argyle the Lord Lieutenant and hates with a perfect hatred the wicked Macleans on the other side of Mull who fought with his ancestors two hundred years ago.' Scott hinted elsewhere at a certain coldness between Ulva and Torloisk - changed days from those of Allan na Sop! - by remarking that the Laird of Staffa and Mrs. Maclean Clephane were both too keen Highlanders to be without the characteristic prejudices of their clans. This, he said, divided two highly accomplished and most estimable families, living almost within sight of each other, and on an island where polished conversation could not be supposed to abound.⁶⁴

      In Mull and Ulva, as elsewhere in the Hebrides, the people had their own form of culture and entertainment. They took an unaffected pride in keeping alive the old Highland traditions and melodies. Gaelic songs, tales and poetry were part of their everyday life. As a worthy branch of old Clan Ranald, and a member and office-bearer of the Highland Society of Scotland, the laird was a firm believer in preserving all that was left of the ancient lore. Several fragments of Gaelic tales which he had gathered in Mull were printed in the society's report on the Ossianic controversy, published in 1805, and later described by John Francis Campbell of Islay as 'a genuine collection of popular lore' which he found useful in 'mending' the texts received from other sources.⁶⁵

      When Alexander Campbell, from Edinburgh, toured the Hebrides in 1815 to gather material for his selection of ancient melodies and poetry (published under the title Albyn's Anthology), he spent a fortnight as a guest at Ulva House.⁶⁶ At home Campbell was known as an Episcopal church organist, but here he donned the kilt and plaid, and was mistaken by one English visitor for a neighbouring Highland chief ⁶⁷ For his benefit Staffa gathered at Ulva House the persons most reputed for local antiquarian knowledge, oral tradition, recitation and singing, and Campbell made good use of his opportunity. He jotted down the melody and first stanza of a Clanranald rowing song or iorram from the singing of Lachlan Macquarie, one of the Ulva tenants; a'lively air' which he noted from the singing of Mary Macquarie, daughter of another tenant; a sad melody sung by one of Staffa's household from South Uist (for which some English verses 'Una of Ulva' were composed for the published work); and more material which failed to find a place in print only because the Anthology never went beyond a second volume.⁶⁸

      There was in Ulva a notable family of pipers, and the idea of reviving or continuing the old custom of having such a hereditary retainer must have appealed to Staffa. The Highland Society's first official piper was John MacArthur, grocer in Edinburgh, called the 'professor' on account of the number of his pupils, and said to have been related to the family of that name who were pipers to the MacDonald chiefs in Skye.⁶⁹ There had been MacArthurs in Ulva at least since 1722, and across Loch Tuadh the Rankins, hereditary pipers to the Macleans, still lived and taught piping at their 'college' at Kilbrenan near Lagganulva.⁷⁰ In October 1801 Archibald MacArthur, 'piper in Ulva', was married to Janet Weir, and the fact that he was given that designation in the parish register shows that if not a full-time occupation it was at least one worthy of note; and their children's baptisms show that the couple moved from Cove to Ardellum about 1807, and were later in Ormaig.⁷¹ This was surely the same Archibald MacArthur, 'piper to Ranald Macdonald of Staffa', who won third prize at the Highland Society's competition in July 1804 and refused the second prize awarded two years later for his playing of 'The End of the Little Bridge'; one of his sons was called Ranald after the laird and Archibald is said to have held 'a small portion of land' from his patron as reward for his services.⁷² These must have been no sinecure, with Ulva such a Mecca for tourists several of whom made special mention of the piper. He was in constant attendance, wakened them each morning with his music and played also at mealtimes. 'This surviving member of Highland feudality used to strut before the window with great solemnity, and in a dress extremely handsome', wrote Carr. A Swiss visitor found that although the piper was placed outside the house, it was almost impossible to hear the conversation during meals.⁷³ Scott, having been received 'with pipes playing and banners displayed', related that the piper 'wore a broadsword, dirk and pistol, although I could read in the eyes of some of the Southern who accompanied us that they considered his pipes as the most formidable part of his accoutrements'.⁷⁴ We know from Alexander Campbell's diary (so far unpublished) that MacArthur was still in Staffa's employment in 1815, and that he had been a pupil of Lieutenant Donald MacCrimmon, the last of MacLeod's hereditary pipers, who spoke warmly of MacArthur 'as one on whom he had bestowed great attention'.⁷⁵

      We may be sure that the piper would have his place when the laird extended hospitality to his tenants and retainers in the traditional Highland manner. At one such 'great feast', we are told, a woman named Darroch was among those who attended. There was usually a Darroch among the Ulva tenantry and it would be well known to a cadet of Clan Ranald with any respect for tradition that bearers of the name (derived from the Gaelic word for oak) were counted among the numerous Clan Donald septs. When someone unwisely objected to her presence on the ground that she was not 'of the clan', the laird corrected him, and called out to her, 'Come up here and sit by me; you have a better right here than anyone - the oak is a true Macdonald'.⁷⁶ This little incident, told by a Clan Donald historian, is a reminder of the many impromptu gatherings that must have taken place in Ulva when it was owned and largely occupied by a smaller clan, which was proud to follow the great MacDonald, Lord of the Isles. 
 

Stepping-stone to Staffa

      Even occasional steamboat trips to Staffa and Iona did not begin until the eighteen-twenties, but before that time a constant stream of travellers found their way from Oban up the sound of Mull to Aros, across the narrow isthmus to Loch na Keal and so to the objects of their journey. It was still regarded as an expedition of some difficulty and danger, but the Mull transit was made easier by four 'hospitable houses' where people with the necessary letter of introduction could put up. One belonged to James Maxwell, the Duke of Argyll's factor or 'chamberlain' in Mull, who lived beside the old castle of Aros whose ruins still dominate Salen Bay; about a mile off was Robert Stewart's, the kind-hearted proprietor of Achadashenaig (and probably the Justice of the Peace who signed the 'Ulva certificate' for Neil Livingstone in 1792); beneath Ben More was Colonel John Campbell's house of Knock; and finally, nearest to Staffa and most frequented of all, was Ulva House whose laird was 'the very impersonation of Highland hospitality.'⁷⁷

      A graphic picture of the fate of a Highland mansion situated at a convenient resting place for tourists has been left by Dr. Norman Macleod, senior, who was intimately acquainted with all these families. 'There was then prevalent among southern tourists a sort of romantic idea of the unlimited extent of Highland hospitality, and of the means at its command,' he says. 'It was no unusual occurrence for the traveller to land at any hour of the day or night which winds, tides or boatman might determine; to walk up to the house of the Highland gentleman; to get a dinner, supper and all, plentiful and comfortable; to retire to bed without thought where the family had packed themselves (so the travelling party might have accommodation); and finally to obtain next day, or if it rained, days after, carts, horses, boats, men, baskets of provisions crammed with roast fowls, cold lamb, cold salmon, grouse, milk, brandy, sherry and bottles of whisky. The sheep-shearing, the hay cutting or the reaping of crops might be put to a stop; what of that? They are so hospitable in the Highlands.'⁷⁸

      Some of the guests at Ulva were even worse than inconsiderate. It was there that Dr. John MacCulloch met a party 'who were indulging themselves, for the honour of Oxford, if they were rightly entered in Mr. Macdonald's album', with abuse and noise, and with coarse jokes on the bare-foot girl who attended them. And these bucks, blowing bugle horns, wearing Highland bonnets, drinking whisky in the morning and talking of the 'Heelands', were among the people who went home and wrote tours at least one of which was but a rehash of Samuel Johnson's.⁷⁹ In spite of this, the long-suffering hosts took not only pity on the travellers, but pleasure in entertaining them. In the summer months, as John Carr unblushingly remarks, 'they are never without visitors attracted by the islands, many of whom are distinguished for either rank, talent or character.'⁸⁰

      Journals of this period are so plentiful that it is not hard to imagine ourselves on a visit to Staffa in his island home. We have met him, perhaps quite casually in Edinburgh and he has asked us to look him up during our trip to the Hebrides. Hiring a boat with several stout rowers at Oban, we are lucky if they negotiate the tide-race off Lismore without some rash trial of skill and daring. Eventually we are landed at Aros, where if we have no other introductions, we can stay the night at the crowded inn. Notice is sent forward to Ulva of our coming and if our host thinks us worthy he may send his boat to meet us at the head of Loch na Keal. Sir Walter Scott was welcomed to Ulva with pipes and banners, but lesser visitors may have to content themselves with hiring horses or even walking the weary miles to Ulva Ferry.⁸¹

      Once arrived, we are escorted up to Ulva House, seeing strange sights on the way. 'The gates here, as in the island of Mull, are such as one might suppose had been constructed by Robinson Crusoe, or rather by his sable servant, Friday. The hinges are two curved sticks let into a wall, supporting the gate, than which nothing could be more rude and uncouth; and locks and keys are also frequently constructed of wood.'⁸²

      All find a gracious welcome from their host and his household. 'English comforts and more than English hospitality' was what greeted the young descendant of the Marlboroughs already mentioned. There is a servant in livery [presumably tartan is meant] to show us into the drawing-rooms, where of books and newspapers, and good conversation, there is no lack. The ladies are nothing behind the laird in their attentions; tributes to the general hospitality are all according to a more or less set formula of the day. The vivacious Mrs. Murray puts it thus: 'To be under the roof of the laird of Staffa was no small matter in my opinion, but when I became intimately acquainted with his mother and sisters, I forgot in their society that the bad weather made me a prisoner; and feeling myself the guest of four ladies, so well informed and of such amiable manners, it required an effort to set myself at liberty, even after I had attained the object I was in pursuit of.'⁸³

      There we have our attention drawn to the important features of any visit to Ulva in those days - the trip to the Isle of Staffa and the weather on which it depended. The surge of the Atlantic billows round that rocky island is never still and even the most experienced boatman is cautious and respectful of his advances. Sir John Stoddart, who made one abortive effort to reach Staffa before he was successful, found it not unusual for strangers to wait in vain a fortnight for fair weather. Mrs. Murray, from her own experience says that of 26 days, only one was sufficiently fair for them to trust themselves - perhaps for her hosts to entrust her - on the boisterous Atlantic near the island. In winter, of course, the chance of landing was even rarer and it is isolated for long periods at a time.⁸⁴

      Suppose, however, that we have been fortunate in finding a day suitable for the excursion. Wakened by the music of bagpipes, the most stirring of alarm-clocks, we find any reluctance for early rising banished by excitement. While preparations are completed the strains continue; all are not agreed about the merit of the music and John Carr was deliberately rude: 'At breakfast and after dinner, Staffa, I suppose out of compliment to his tenantry, was attended by his piper. This surviving member of Highland feudality used to strut before the window with great solemnity and in a dress extremely handsome. ... I was informed that one of these barbarous musicians, attempting in a fit of enthusiasm, to pipe over 18 miles of ground, blew his breath out of his body. It would have been well if he had been the last of the race.' For which piece of impertinence Scott, remarking that even the hospitality of Staffa hardly induced Carr to stifle his sarcasms, rebuked him by saying that doubtless Staffa's achievements would be sung to the oars of the men of Ulva, 'not only when those of Fingal, but even of Sir John Carr, shall have faded from memory.'⁸⁵

      Breakfast over, the company goes down to the boat which has by now been provisioned and made ready. Joined by the piper, we make our way by the strength of four stout boatmen to the sea-way between Inchkenneth and Little Colonsay towards Staffa. The journey is lightened by Gaelic iorrams, sung with great spirit to the sweep of the oars. At last we find ourselves landing on the tangle-covered rocks in one of the more sheltered coves, clambering over the basaltic terraces or admiring the fine pasture land tended by a lonely herdsman. In Fingal's Cave itself, if lucky, we will hear the maligned piper playing with pathos the lament for the slain on the field of Culloden. 'The resounding tone of the pipe commingling with the thundering noise of the Atlantic dashing into the further end of the cavern is awfully sublime.' the musical Alexander Campbell testified. 'The sound of the bagpipe, almost drowned by the roaring of the waves and the echo of the cave, exceeded in grandeur and wildness any union of sounds I ever heard', wrote the literary John Ley-den. And the Swiss geologist, Louis Albert Necker de Saussure, found the wild sounds of 'cet instrument sauvage' accorded well with the rest of the scene, the echoing notes producing an effect 'tout a fait analogue a celui des orgues dune vaste cathedrale'.⁸⁶

      A long pull home brings to an end a memorable day. The delight of Staffa's visitors is revealed in one ingenuous tale from the pen of the blase' descendant of dukes himself. 'I was in such glee that I made the head boatman teach me to express my pleasure at having seen Staffa, in the Erse language; and I repeated, Ham tauliskke a Staffa. (I am delighted with Staffa.), to the no small astonishment of the islanders whom I met. I also learnt, Kim ararsh doo. (How do you do.), and Herniem garch re a Staffa. (I have been to Staffa.). It pleases the Highlanders much to be spoken to in their own language.'⁸⁷

      But not all visitors to Ulva enjoyed the hospitality of the laird, bounteous as it was. Some had to content themselves, if they wished to stay on the island, with the shelter afforded by the Ulva Ferry Inn - variously described in those days as 'humble' and a 'hovel'.⁸⁸ By the time that uninvited travellers had reached Ulva, however, they were apt to be out of humour, for the track beside Loch na Keal from Aros was tedious and rough, and the ferry not always smooth.

      One famous visitor who does not seem to have been favored with Staffa's invitation was James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. He wrote some impressive lines about his visit to Fingal's Cave, but he was evidently in a less exalted mood after settling with the boatman. In the Visitors' Book which used to be kept in the Inn, Hogg wrote: 
 

'I have sail'd round the creeks and the headland of Mull;

      Her vales are uncultur'd, unhallow'd and weedy;

Her mountains are barren - her haven is dull;

      Her sons may be brave, but they're cursedly greedy.' 
 

      To which jaundiced effusion the following retort was added below by a 'Son of Morven' who happened to be visiting Staffa and Iona and saw the lines next day: 
 

'Ah! Shepherd of Ettrick! why sorely complain,

      Tho' the boatmen were greedy for grog?

The beauties of Staffa by this you proclaim

      Were pearls cast away on a Hog!'⁸⁹ 
 

      Sir John Stoddart, who stayed at the inn at Laggan Ulva, on the Mull side of the ferry, says that the regular price of a boat to Staffa and back was fifteen shillings, and two bottles of whisky to the men. In addition, he himself had to pay five shillings for an ineffectual attempt to reach the island and gave the boatmen two bottles more. But he had no complaints to make for he remarks: 'The remainder of our charges at Laggan Ulva were in the same proportion moderate.'⁹⁰

      Unfortunately the album in which Hogg and others wrote seems to have disappeared. It is mentioned by several writers and had been moved to Ulva House by 1815, when Spencer mentioned taking leave of the hospitable family there 'and making honourable mention of Macdonald himself in a book which was originally at the inn, and in which it is customary for those who visit Staffa to insert their names.' In a note he added: 'Besides the names of those who visited Staffa and Iona, this book contained innumerable poetical effusions on the occasion. Most were very poor. There were some by Walter Scott, much below his usual style. The best were by Lord Delawarre. As nothing occurred to me on the occasion, I contended myself with an insertion in prose.'⁹¹ 
 

Economic realities

      Behind Staffa's fine show of open-handed hospitality, unfavorable economic realities were at work. Even by 1815 the price of kelp, on which many landowners depended for their prosperity and even their solvency, and thousands of tenants relied for making a modest cash income as well as paying their rent, had fallen so low as to leave no adequate inducement to carry on its manufacture. The Highland Society took alarm and tried to encourage improved quality in the product, better methods of preparing it and bringing it to market.⁹² At the national level plans were known to be afoot to produce an alkali from salt which would supersede the use of kelp in making soap, glass and other commodities. Kelp-shore proprietors joined in sending anxious memorials to the Treasury, warning them that the abolition of salt duties would be ruinous to the 'maritime districts of the Highlands', causing the young and vigorous part of the population to emigrate and leaving the remainder destitute.⁹³

      Staffa and his cousin Clanranald were among the petitioners, but the former's finances made his personal anxiety more acute. At first his father-in-law thought he had made a good match for his daughter, but he soon changed his mind, although when he was created a baronet in 1814 he secured a special remainder in favour of Ranald. He had found serious faults in his son-in-law's temper, talents and character; Ranald's finances had always been shaky, it appears, though he had concealed the fact, but by March 1817 Sir Henry was convinced that Reginald (as he preferred to call him) had lied about this position and 'is really a bankrupt'.⁹⁴

      Ranald had, in fact, granted a trust disposition on 24 December 1816 in favour of his creditors, which conveyed his estates into the hands of trustees, who were given possession in March 1817.⁹⁵ In a series of 'heavy proceedings' involving much trouble and expence, Sir Henry took over Ulva and the other properties were sold. However, Ranald's lawyer and friend John Forman contrived by a trusteeship arrangement to ensure that Staffa would not be lost to its titular lord and 'Staffa' he remained to the end.⁹⁶ He lived for another active 20 years; as sheriff of Stirlingshire he was caught up in the sedition trials of the 1820s, and in Edinburgh he was a unique figure in social circles, 'dancing a country dance in his finest style' along with his half-brother Hector Macdonald Buchanan and his family (known to their friends as 'the MacBues').⁹⁷ His Highland interests did not waver, though he could no longer play the laird: he is credited with having introduced the style of 'giving the time' when special toasts were drunk with Highland honours; as a member of the newly-founded Celtic Society he was with the contingent reviewed by King George IV on Portobello sands in 1822, accompanied by his piper Archibald MacArthur; he escorted Napoleon's former Marshal Macdonald on his visit to Scotland in 1825, and the celebrated cannon Mons Meg on its return to Edinburgh Castle in 1829, and supported the short-lived Iona Club in its work to preserve and publish the written sources of Highland history.⁹⁸ He sailed again through the Hebrides in 1827 as one of a deputation appointed by the church of Scotland to further its General Assembly's plans for improving the provision for education; still as 'Mr. Macdonald of Staffa' he presided at the Highland Society's regular piping competition in 1835, and two years later he insisted on attending a public meeting in Glasgow to aid the relief of Highland destitution, in spite of having just suffered two bouts of influenza, telling the promoters, 'I could not think of declining their kind solicitation if I were to die in the cause.'⁹⁹ In fact he survived for little more than a year longer and it was as Sir Reginald Macdonald-Seton-Steuart, baronet of, Staffa, Allanton and Touch that he died at his home in Edinburgh in April 1838 at the age of 60.¹⁰⁰ He had inherited one estate in Stirlingshire in the right of his wife and another in Lanarkshire with the baronetcy from his father-in-law; the latter's brief reign as laird of Ulva forms a footnote to the story of the Macdonald period as possessors of the old land of the MacQuarries.

      Sir Henry had purchased the estate of Ulva by April 1821, although the terms of his will show that he did not intend that it should remain in the Allanton family.'¹⁰¹ He or his factor found the inhabitants 'frugal and industrious'; but because of agricultural distress during the 'severe years' of 1821-4, rents were reduced by between 10% and 25% according to the circumstances and situation of the tenants. ¹⁰² At the end of that period rents totalled nearly £1150; kelp was worth another £600 and was still said to be making 'a very handsome profit' for the tenants besides paying their rent. The Ulva kelp had been pronounced by an eminent chemist to be 'the best ever produced in Scotland', it gained the Highland Society's highest premium in 1823 and it was much sought after by dealers 'when inferior kelps were a drug in the market'. ¹⁰³

      The new proprietor had added about 25 tons of kelp or £150 to the yearly rental since taking over; as an experiment and to encourage a scientific mode of fishing, he had fitted out a small open boat which enabled four men to catch two tons of cod and ling worth £20 per ton in Glasgow; and provided oyster-dredges 'of the best construction' which if put to the best use could supply the city of Glasgow with better oysters than they got from the east coast. ¹⁰⁴

      This rather rosy picture, it is true, was presented in the hope of attracting purchasers when the estate was advertised for sale. These were statements which could presumably be checked, but a more subjective approach was also offered in the ten-page printed particulars provided. 'Probably it is not too much to say', it claimed, 'that this is the most compact and beautiful Highland property now in the market. ... An extensive Island resembles a great Park completely walled, which implies at once undisturbed possession within, and security from incursion from without. A landlord here, when sole proprietor, is like a governor of a fortified town, who has at all times the full command of the place and its inhabitants.'¹⁰⁵ The 68 tenants and their families must have wondered with some trepidation who this new 'governor' might be. The seven or eight Macquarie families among them were to see one of their own clan once more as laird, nearly 50 years after the old Chief had parted with the lands of his ancestors. 
 

Notes and References - Chapter 4, Travellers Tales:

1. First printed in Edinburgh Advertiser, 12 Oct 1810 (xciv 238). For discussion of best text see Dr.J.C.Corson, 4 Sep 1948 (193/391/3). On Inn album see p34 & note 87 below.

2. Norman MacLeod, Reminiscences of a Highland Parish (1867), 323-5.

3. Captain Dugald Campbell of Achnaba later served in India with the 74th Regt. (raised 1787) and died at Vellore in May 1792, aged 37 (Sir D.Campbell of Barcaldine, MS notes on Campbell officers in Lyon Office, Edinburgh). For Barbreck see same author, Records

of Clan Campbell in the Mil. Ser. of the Hon. East India Company (1925), 50-54, and Argyll Estate Instructions ed. E.R.Cregeen (1964), 114.

4. Clan Donald, Rev. A.&A.Macdonald, iii (1904), 291-4; J.L.Buchanan, Travels in the Western Hebrides(1793) p27; Clanranald MSS in SRO, GD 201/5/1234.

5. M.Martin, Descrip.... West. Is. of Scot.(1934), 224, 354; M.Gray, The High. Econ. (1957), 124ff; P.Jackson, 'Scot. Seaweed Res.', Scot. Geo. Mag.(1948), vo164, p136.

6. B.Faujas de St Fond, A Journey through England and Scotland to the Hebrides (1907ed), ii 79; West Coast of Scotland Pilot(1934ed), 21.

7. Aberdeen University Library, MS 2464, see Northern Scotland i 124; The Campbell Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings, ed. D.E.Meek(1978), 26.

8. Argyll Estate Insts, 188; R.Jameson, Mineralogical Travels through the Hebrides &c.(1800) ii 243-4; T.Garnett, Observ. on a Tour through the High. and part of the West.

Is. of Scot_,(1810ed), i 188, show larger prices of £5 & £6 per ton in 1770s & 1780s.

9. Rev.A.MacArthur in Sinclair's Stat. Acc. of Scot.(1795), xiv 152; Garnett, i 188.

10. Clan Donald, iii 295; S.Murray, A Comp. & Useful Guide to the Beauties in the-Western Highlands of Scotland & in the Hebrides (1803), ii 362.

11. Royal Comm. on the Anc. & Hist. Mon. of Scot., Argyll Inv. 3, 38 (house destroyed by fire 1954, see Nat. Mon. Rec.); Sir John Carr, Caled. Sket.(1809), 478-9; G.L.A. Douglas,

Tour in the Heb. AS 1800(1927), 30; W.Daniell, A Picturesque Voy. round Gt. Brit., Vol iii no 85 (1 Nov 1817), reprod. in J.MacCormick, The Is. of Mull (1934 ed) 33.

12. There were Highlanders in David Dale's cotton mills in Lanarkshire in 1791 and he was willing to employ more, OSA xv 40 (new ed vii 466); J.M. Bumsted, The People's Clearance (1982), 49, 77; New Lanark Heritage Trail(n.d.), no 4. For MacQuarrie emigration overseas, see chap. 7.

13. Old Parish Registers, 544/1 (New Reg. House, Edinburgh); A.M.Sinclair, 'The Anc. of Dr. Livingstone', in Celt. Mon., xvii 168-9 (Glasgow 1909). The story of a Lismore & Appin ancestry was put forward earlier in 1909 by Dr. A.Carmichael, Celt. Rev., v 371-2 & vi 340-5 & embellished by K.W.Grant, Myth, Trad. & Story from West. Argyll (1925), 61-8; but Carmichael's authority is weakened by disagreeing with Livingstone himself over his grandparents' names, & the fact that these grandparents (Neil Livingstone & Mary Morison) lived at Lettermore near Loch Frisa in Mull in 1774-7 (OPRs 544/1) may have caused confusion with the same more famous place-name of Lettermore in Appin.

14. The account of his ancestry in D. Livingstone's Miss. Travels Researches in S. Africa (1857) 1-2, is I believe the most authentic; it differs only in minor details from the original MS text (NLS, in MS 10712) with which I have compared it. It shows that he had his information from his grandfather Neil, whose father fell at Culloden 'fighting for our old line of kings' (MS version). The idea that Neil was 'evicted' in 1792 (T.Jeal, Livingstone, 1973 p7) seems to come from a story in R.J.Campbell, Livingstone 1929, 30 & to be based on Grant, Myths, &c., 66-7 where source is not stated; it is not told by D.L. or his sister Janet who provided notes (NLS, MS 10767) for W.B.Blaikie's Pers. Life of D. Livingstone, 1880. Ferininardary, which puzzled Sinclair & Campbell, is named in many documents from the 1630 retour to Donald MacQuarrie of Ulva onwards (chap. 2); its location is clear from 1812 plans of Ulva (NLS, Howard deposit, Ace. 9442), G.Lang-lands & Son map of Argyll(1801) & Mull sheet Ord. Surv. nat. grid ref. NM 4239.

15. Guide to the Scot. Nat. Mem. to Dav. Liv.(n.d.), 7. Rev.J.I.McNair, chairman of Liv. Mem. Trust, in ltr. to RWM 29 Nov 1946, said they got the Ulva certificate' from D.L.'s grandson, Dr.H.F.Wilson, which shows it was carefully preserved in the family. The Liv. Center also has photographs and paintings of the site of the Liv. home at Cove in Ulva.

16. A tenement contained 24 single-roomed houses ( l Ox 14 ft), one family in each room (Guide, 6,7); A Cullen, Adventures in Socialism 1910.

17. Janet Livingstone, notes for Dr.Blaikie (NLS, MS 10767); David Livingstone, Missionary Travels_} 1-3. The stone was in place when I visited Blantyre in 1939, but was later removed to the Memorial premises, in the area of the rose garden.

18. Missionary Travels (MT), 2; Blaikie, 89. D.L. was aware of the practice of 'cattle lifting' and mentions the term gapa of the Makololo tribe in E. Africa as also being differentiated from stealing, (MT, 526; Campbell, 37).

19. R.Heron, General View of the Natural ... Hebrides, 1794, 43.

20. Clan Donald, iii 294-7; Douglas, Tour, 31.

21. F.J.Grant, Faculty of Advocates, 1944, 130.

22. Northern Highlands in the 19th Century, ed J.Barron, i 43, ii 222-3; House of Seton, 1941, Sir Bruce Seton, ii 490; Grant, 130.

23. The Scotsman, 21 Apr 1838.

24. Ltr. to Joanna Baillie, Ulva House, 19 Jul 1810, in Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed H.J.C.Grierson, ii 361.

25. Argyll Sasines 1781-1820, abridgements no 1317, regd. 10 Sep 1801; no 1490, regd. 27 Sep 1803; no 1748, regd. 5 Jun 1807, under burden of £8000 on disposition by Lord John Campbell; James Macdonald, Gen. View of the Agri. of the Heb., 1811, 68, 711.

26. Scots Mag, 1812, 155; House of Seton, ii 490-2; Clan Donald iii 296.

27. A.Ramsay, Hist. of the High. and Agri. Soc. of Scot., 151-2; T.Hunter, Woods, Forests & Estates of Perthshire, 1883, 13.

28. Ramsay, History, 515.

29. Clan Donald, iii 296; Lyon Register 1813; J.B.Paul, Ordinary of Arms ... Scotland, 1893, 118; G.Seton, Law and Practice ... Scotland, 1863, 144-5.

30. 'The Property of Reginald Macdonald, Esq.' NLS Ace. 9442, deposited by Mrs. Howard, 1987 (14 map sheets, Staffa & Laggan Ulva not included).

31. Ibid.

32. J.Macdonald, 1811, 688.

33. Carr, 493-4.

34. Edinburgh Advertiser, 27 Jan 1815; Directions for Preparing Manure from Peat, 1815, Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank; Garnett, i 165.

35. Leslie plans, 1812; 'Particulars of the Estate of Ulva, in Argyllshire', c 1824, copy in Lochbuie Papers, SRO GD 174/1087/1, p3; Macdonald, 1811, 689; Carr 481 (& see D.N.B.); Spencer, 78.

36. Macdonald, 1811, 690; Carr, 495.

37. 1824 Rental, in GD 174/1087/1; OPRs 544/1.

38. Carr, 496-8.

39. Murray, Companion, ii 361-2; cottage in Mull, Garnett, 159-60; tradition from late C.R.Morison, Tobermory 1939.

40. I.F.Grant, High. Folk Ways (1961) 141; Carr, 497-8; RCAHMS, Argyll Inv. 3 no 388.

41. F.W.Clark (writing of 30 years back) in NSA vii (Argyle), 346; Livingstone, MT, 2.

42. Macdonald (1811), 689.

43. W.P.L.Thomson, Kelp-Making in Orkney (1983), 18, 25.

44. John Walker, 'An Essay on Kelp' (1788), in High. Soc. of Scot., Prize Essays & Trans, i 11-2; F.Fraser Darling & J.Morton Boyd, High. & Islands New Nat. series, 1964, 183-4; C.M.Yonge, The Sea Shore (same series, 197 led), esp. plates iv, v; Alan Major, The book of Seaweed, 1977, 120, 135, 138. The Ulva genus, or sea lettuce, a green weed, owes its name not to the island but to a Latin word for 'sedge'.

45. James Hunter, The Making of the Crofting Comm., 1976, 17, 32; for the distinction between weed for kelp and for agriculture, Argyll Estate Instructions, ed. Cregeen, 192.

46. This is based mainly on Duke of Argyll, Scotland as it was and it is, 1887, ii 102-3; Carr 490; Thomson, Kelp-Making in Orkney.

47. Thomson, 34-5.

48. Ibid 34; Illustrated in W.Daniell, Voyage, iii nos 85-6 (reproduced in MacCormick, Mull, 75, & J.P.MacLean, Mull, i 40).

49. Argyll, Scot., ii 104; John MacCulloch, The High. & West. Is. of Scot., 1824, iii 154.

50. Thomson, 35.

51. MacCulloch, iii 154; A.Beaton, 'The Art of Making Kelp', in Highland Society, Prize Essays, i 33-4.

52. Thomson, 34; Kelp manufacture in Ulva (1834), in SRO GD 174/1137/1; Argyll, Scotland, ii 104.

53. Memorial of Kelp Proprietors, 1818, in SRO GD 237/120/4.

54. John Walker, Economical History of the Hebrides, 1808; Clark in NSA vii (Argyle), 353; Malcolm Gray, Highland Economy, 136; Hunter, Crofting Comm., 30.

55. Carr, Sketches, 498-9.

56. Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, iv 76, 113, 122.

57. Macdonald, 1811, 66, 689.

58. Ibid; Leslie plans, 1812; SSPCK records show 26 boys & 7 girls at the school in Ulva in 1784-5, 24 & 7 in 1785-6, 49 & 6 in 1786-7, 54 & 6 in 1789-90, 46 & 8 in 1791-2, the last two with L.Macquarie and assistant and successor to Tawse (SRO GD 95/11/2).

59. SRO GD 95/7/1, 95/11/2.

60. MacQuarrie to Lochbuie, 21 Nov 1794 (GD 174/1427/2 1).

61. SRO GD 174/1578 (3 papers); he acknowledged, 4 Apr 1801, obligation to 'The Boisdale family for having distinguished me above another in the Island', but the circumstances are not clear.

62. Letters to Joanna Baillie 19 Jul 1810 & to Lady Abercorn 30 Sep 1810, in Scott's Letters, ed Grierson, ii 360, 377.

63. Macdonald (1811), 688.

64. Letters to Joanna Baillie 19 Jul 1810 & to J.B.S.Morritt 9 Aug 1810 in Letters, ii 361, 367-8; Psalm 139 v. 22.

65. Report of the Comm. of the High. Soc. of Scot. ... Poems of Ossian, 1805, comp. H.MacKenzie, p90 & app. 224-58 passim; Leabhar na Feinne, 1872, ed J.F.Campbell, pp

vii, xxvi-vii, & 37 &c.; orig. in LS, MS 73.2.1, with Campbell's comment; D.Mackinnon, Desc. Cat. of Gael. Manu., 1912, 278; J. Mackechnie, Cat. of Gael. Manu. 1973, i 278-9. Ranald's source was John MacMhuirich(MacPherson), SSPCK schoolmaster in Mull, tales learnt mainly from his grandfather Donald Maclean (b. 1715 Rothill farm, Torosay parish).

66. A.Campbell, Albyn's Anthology, 2 vols, 1816, 1818; 'A Slight Sketch of a Journey ... Parts of the High. and Heb.' (MS in Edin. Univ. Lib.), pp 17-8. for Campbell see D.N.B.

67. Journal of a Tour to Scotland, 1816, 74, pub. anon., but author was Rev. Frederick C.Spencer, 1796-183 1, grandson of 3rd Duke of Marlborough.

68. Albyn's Anthology, i 58-9, ii 12-3, 76-7.

69. Angus Mackay, Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd, 1838, 12; J.Logan, The Scottish Gael, 1831, ii 280; J.G.Dalyell, Musical Memoirs of Scotland, 1849, 15; 'Fionn' (H.Whyte), Martial Music of the Clans, 1904, 112. This John MacArthur died in 1792.

70. Inveraray Papers, 1939, ed D.C.MacTavish, 23, 43; H.Whyte, The Rankins, 1907; the last to teach at 'College' was Hugh, kirk session treasurer Kilninian & Kilmore 1780 to death (1783), suc. by son Hector who gave up Kilbrenan farm c1804.

71. OPRs 544/1, marriage 7 Oct 1801, bapt. 12 Sep 1802, 18 Dec 1803, 6 Jan 1806 - all Cove; 20 Sep 1807, 23 Apr 1809, 28 Aug 1814 - all Ardellum; Kilvickewen MI, Chas. d 1 Mar 1823, age 18, father 'tenant, Ormaig'. 'Archy Piper' used 1801 as messenger by MacQuarrie to Lochbuie was probably the same (SRO letter 21 Dec 1801, GD 174/1427, no 53, also nos 25a 26).

72. John Kay, Original Portraits, 1838, ii 299, with illus. dated 1810; D.Baptie, Musical Scotland, 1894, 118 says Archibald was born in Mull c1770; Kay believed he died in 1834, but it may have been later.

73. Carr, 479; L.A.Necker de Saussure, A Voyage to the Hebrides, 1822, 28.

74. Letter to G.Ellis, 29 Jul 1810, in Letters, ed Grierson, ii 364.

75. A.Campbell, 'Slight Sketch', 3 Aug 1815. The question of whether the MacArthurs had a 'college of pipers' on Ulva has been discussed & often stated (J.MacCormick, Is. of Mull 46-8; S.Gordon, Hebridean Memories, 1923, 109-10; Weekly Scotsman, 19 May 1945). The author of this history, whose interest dates from his 13 Dec 1937 ltr. in the Oban Times, discussed the matter with C.R.Morison, Tobermory, 28 Apr 1939 and corresponded with J.MacCormick & Archibald Campbell, Kilberry (ltrs to RWM 3 Nov 1938, 23 Feb 1949), came to the conclusion that what some called a'college' was probably 'merely the preceptor's dwelling' (as stated in 1849 in Dalyell's Musical Memoirs, 15), and at least one elaborate description of a MacArthur college on Ulva (W.L.Manson, The High. Bagpiper, 1901, 270) is simply a repeat of Pennant's description of the MacArthurs piper's home near Duntulm in Skye (Tour in Scot. & Voy. to the Heb., 1790ed i 348).

76. A.Mackenzie, History of the Macdonalds, 1881, 533 and Celtic Monthly 1881, vi 358; G.F.Black, Surnames of Scotland, 1946, 201; F.Adam, Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, Rev. Innes of Learney, 1970 ed, 313.

77. D.B.MacCulloch, The Wondrous Isle of Staffa, 1957ed, 28; Norman MacLeod, Reminiscences of a Highland Parish, 1867, 334. Knock MI show that Maxwell & Stewart died in Aug 1829 & Oct 1813, aged 71, 65 respectively.

78. MacLeod, Reminiscences, 323-40, chapter on 'Staffa Tourists 40 Years Ago'.

79. J.MacCulloch, Highlands and Western Isles, i 272.

80. Carr, Caledonian Sketches, 503.

81. Letters to J.Baillie & G.Ellis, Letters, ed Grierson, ii 359-60, 364.

82. Carr, 478.

83. Spencer, Journal, 74, 78; Murray, Companion, 359.

84. J. Stoddart, Remarks on Local Scenery & Manners in Scot., 1801 i 298; Murray, 359.

85. Carr, 479; Scott, Miscellaneous Prose Works, xix.

86. Campbell, 'Sight Sketch', 18 & Albyn's Anthology, i 58; J. Leyden, Journal of a Tour_... in Scotland in 1800, ed J.Sinton, 1903, 37 41-2; L. A.Necker-de-S aus sure, Voyage en Ecosse et aux Iles Hebrides, Geneve, 1821, ii 302. Also on p281 says piper was called 'Makarter', of family who for long furnished the Macdonalds with joueurs de cornemuse', and 'Cet homme excelle dans son art, et il se plait a executer sur son instrument les plus grandes difficultes' (omitted in English abridgement).

87. Spencer, Journal, 100-1 & note.

88. 'Ferry & Change House' appears in 1775 Ulva rental, SRO GD 174/788; Sir John Carr stayed at the Inn, 'a very humble one, and the only one on the island' in 1807, Caledonian Sketches 477; host was a Macdonald & tenant 1824 was Lachlan Macdonald, SRO GD 174/1087/1; a visitor e1839 called it a hovel (C.H.Towshend, Descriptive Tour in-Scotland, 1846 ed - Mitchell's List of Travels no 509).

89. Lachlan Maclean, A Historical Account of lona ... Period, 1833, 136 Date of Hogg's visit uncertain, but probably in 1803 when he was certainly in Tobermory D.B. MacCulloch, Staffa, 1957 ed, 148-9; James Hogg, A Tour of the High. in 1803 (1888, reprinted 1986),5,34; Hogg, Highland Tours, ed W.F.Laughlan (1981), 45, 66,134-5).

90. Stoddart, Remarks, i 309-10.

91. Spencer, 101, Scott's verses are at the head of this chapter; J.MacCulloch, Highlands and Western Isles, i 272; L.Maclean (as in note 87), 134-6; N.MacLeod Highland Parish, 334-5; D.B.MacCulloch, (1927) 136n, (1957) 148.

92. General Meeting 10 Jan 1815, copy in Clanranald papers (SRO GD 237/120/4 no 11).

93. Edinburgh meeting 13 Feb 1818, ibid. no 9, where Claud Russell signed for Clanranald, Pennycross and Staffa.

94. Bruce Seton, House of Seton, 1941, ii 140-2.

95. Argyll Sasines, abridgements no 2657, regd. 21 Mar 1817, from P.R. 32.152.

96. Staffa Papers (priv. coll.), Itr to J.N.Forman from Law, Holmes, Anlow & Turnbull, London 20 Dec 1850; D.B.MacCulloch, Staffa, 1957, 35. By 1821 Staffa was so popular that vandals were breaking the basaltic columns & taking away large pieces, disfiguring Fingal's Cave & making it unsafe for travellers; boats carrying large hammers were offered at double or triple the usual freight, with extra whisky for the crew, and it became necessary to put up a railing with locked iron gate (RWM The Scotsman, 22 Jul 1967, based on notice 'To travellers visiting the Island of Staffa, &c.', Stirling Journal, 2 Aug 1821, copy among Staffa papers). Travellers could secure boats & key from innkeeper at Ulva; four-oared boat with crew cost 18s. from Ulva Ferry to Staffa, £ 1 11s. 6d. to Iona or two guineas if weather permitted visiting both in one day. (Ibid.) John MacCulloch wrote: 'Our friend Staffa has even been obliged to put a lock & key on his island, lest it should be stolen, & its very existence was not know fifty years ago', High. and West. Is., ii 2, iv 385. Timing of advertisement suggest it originated with John Forman, W.S.

97. He was present at execution of Andrew Hardie at Stirling 8 Sep 1820 (P.MacKenzie, Old Reminiscences ... Scotland, 1890, i 189-90); for social life see Helen Graham, Parties & Pleasures, 1957, ed J.Irvine, 129-3 1. Hector Macdonald, son of Colin of Boisdale by his first wife, married 1793 Jean Buchanan of Drummakill (Clan Donald, iii 294-5, Scots Mag., 1793, 359; J.G.Smith, Strathendrick, 1896, 321-2); was principal clerk of session & friend of Scott (J.G.Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, ii 105, 1893 popular ed, 141, 672); owned Ross Priory on shores of Loch Lomond; said to have 'feathered his nest hand-somely through the love of litigation or imbecility of some of the island proprietors', C.F. MacKintosh Antiquarian Notes, 1897, ii 323-4.

98. A.Hislop, Book of Scot. Anecdote, 8th ed, 68; Hist. Acc. of His Majesty's Visit to Scot., 3rd ed, 1822, 209n; Kay's Portraits, ii 299; Barron, North. High., ii 4, 8-9; Celtic Mon., xi 208-9; J.Mitchell, Reminiscences ... High., 1883, 1971 reprint, i 134-5; Scots-man, 10 Mar 1829, per Gray's Edinburgh Castle, 121; Iona Club Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, 1847, Trans. p13.

99. Memorials of Rev. Norman MacLeod, Sr, (1898) 75; Lord Teignmouth, Sketches of-the Coasts and Islands of Scotland, 1836, i 217-8; A. Mackay, Ancient Piobaireachd, 1838, intro. p20; Staffa Papers, letter to John Forman, W.S. 4 Feb 1837.

100. Inverness Courier, 25 Apr 1838, per Barron, N. Highlands, ii 222-3; The Scotsman, 21 Apr 1838. His wife (d 2 Aug 1866) had succeeded from her mother to the Touch estate in 1835, and on Sir Henry's death in 1836 Ranald succeeded him as 2nd baronet, Clan Donald, iii 296. Ranald's marriage seems unhappy, but his wife's action for divorce failed in 1830 (Shaw's Session Cases, viii 959; H.Cockburn, Circuit Journeys, 15).

101. Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton had purchased the estate of Ulva by 4 April 1821 (codicil to trust disposition, quoted House of Seton, ii 491-3), but he did not get sasine of possession (on disposition dated 25 Oct 1822 by trustee for creditors with Ranald's consent) until 14 May 1823, registered 24 May, first for lands in Ulva & Mull, and then for Gometra & Little Colonsay (Argyll Sasines, abridgements nos 325 & 326, quoting G.R. 1274.206 & 210 resp.).

102. 'Particulars of the Estate of Ulva', c 1824, 2, printed copy in Lochbuie Papers, SRO GD 174/1087/1.

103. Ibid., 2-3. The chemist was named as 'Dr. Fife', who may be A.Fyfe, author of 'Essay upon the comparative Value of Kelp and Barilla', in 1816 Highland Society Transaction (cited Thomson, Kelp-Making in Orkney, 128 note 5).

104. Ibid., 4-5.

105. Ibid,., 5-6.