Weather: grey sky, many passing showers, not much wind but horrific conditions forecast for tonight - we might not get off the island tomorrow.
The day started at the Museum where we caught up with Jean, a genealogist, whom I have been corresponding with re the Hunter family on Arran - Merilyn's g.g.g. grandmother on the Hannaker side ( maternal side) was Margaret Hunter, who married Edward Hannaker in Australia. We knew that Margaret was born on Arran and when she was about two the family moved to Saltcoat on the mainland where her father was a ship master. We found out today that Saltcoat was a main port for shipping to Arran in the 1800's and many mariners lived in Quay St because of it's easy access to the port. Yesterday we walked down Quay St and today we found the area on Arran where they had lived, probably as tenant farmers, and from where they were forced to move, along with hundreds of others, when farming practices changed - it was more economical to have more sheep on the land and fewer tenants. During this time, known as the Clearances, many families from Arran actually migrated to Canada. We did not learn a lot more about the Hunter family but we had fun discovering where they had lived and learning more about what life for them would have been like.
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| A typical house in Quay St |
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| Quay St, Saltcoat |
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| Cottage at Strathwillan, Arran |
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| View across Brodick bay from Strathwillan
We spent some time in a cemetery inspecting headstones but found nothing relevant so we went back to our guest house to chill-out in the lounge room. Not a bad way to end our first month away.
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Sounds like a fun day playing detective.
ReplyDeleteBeing stranded on an island always makes a good holiday story and you tend to not get much sympathy from folks back home.
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