Mallaig, pier and harbour.

Description Mallaig, pier and harbour.

Date 21/9/1883

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

Catalogue Number SC 746290

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of IN 925

Scope and Content Mallaig, Highland Mallaig, a fishing village at the tip of the Lochaber peninsula on the west coast of Scotland, overlooks Skye across the Sound of Sleat. In 1883, when this photograph was taken by Erskine Beveridge, it consisted of a few cottages clustered round a stone-built pier. The main activity of the community was fishing, and this photograph shows the small, single-masted fishing boats anchored in the bay, or drawn up on the shore when not in use. The wooden frame in the foreground was used for drying nets and lines. The stone-built pier allowed larger boats from Skye, and the smaller off-shore islands of Rum, Eigg and Canna, to dock. This small fishing and crofting settlement, laid out by Lord Lovat in the 1840s at the height of the potato famine which devastated much of the Highlands, was transformed at the turn of the 19th century into a thriving harbour for fishing fleets. The herring industry, always an important force in the village's economy, increased in importance with the arrival of the railway from Fort William in 1901. By the early 20th century, Mallaig was an important port of call for island steamers, and was encouraged as a tourist destination with the building of the large and grand Station Hotel. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/746290

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap