Coll, Arinagour. General view from South-East.

Description Coll, Arinagour. General view from South-East.

Date c. 1898

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number AG 1652

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 740717

Scope and Content Arinagour, Coll, Argyll & Bute Arinagour, a tiny settlement of trim whitewashed cottages on the south-west tip of the inlet of Loch Eatharna, is the only village and harbour on the island of Coll. The village was photographed c.1898 by the Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge. This long row of harled or painted rubble cottages lines the main street of the village, and was built c.1814 by Maclean, laird of Coll, in an attempt to modernise the island. Other detached cottages stand further back against a bleak landscape of weathered outcrops of rock. The pier (right), a rubble-built jetty dating from c.1843, provided a landing stage for local fishing boats and ferries transporting passengers, mail and goods from steamers berthed offshore. In the early 19th century, when the cottages were built, the population of the island was about 900. By the 1840s it had grown rapidly to over 1,400, more than the island could support, and there was mass emigration with over half the population leaving for Australia and Canada. In the 1890s, when the photograph was taken, there were 522 people living on the island. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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