Tom Telford: Staffin Bay, Trotternish, Skye, North Minch

(Classified as lighter, with cargo of bricks: date of loss cited as 19 September 1919). Tom Telford: this vessel sank and was wrecked in Digg Bay, Staffin, Skye.

Registration: British. Built 1844. 28nrt.

(Location of loss cited as N57 39.0 W6 14.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Digg Bay is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but the name presumably applies to Staffin Bay, a significant indentation into the East coast of the Trotternish peninsula. Digg itself lies inland, to the W of the bay.

Although recorded under the classifiication of lighter, the cargo and location of loss cited are consistent with the classification of this vessel as a steam lighter or puffer.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 23 July 2008.

Whittaker ID : 13006

Name : TOM TELFORD

Latitude : 573900

Longitude : 61400

Date Built : 1844

Registration : BRITISH

Type : LIGHTER

Tonnage : 28

Tonnage Code : N

Loss Day : 19

Loss Month : 9

Loss Year : 1919

Comment : Sank and wrecked in Digg Bay, Staffin, Skye.

Cargo : BRICKS

Photos of an intertidal wreck were provided to the SAMPHIRE team by David Oakes, a sustainable scallop farmer based in Sconser, Skye. The team had visited David and his family at their home during the 2014 community engagement fieldwork and had been provided with information on several other maritime archaeological sites. In early 2015 David provided two photographs of this wreck site on the beach in Staffin Bay, Skye. The images show four or five distinct large metal objects near the low water mark. They are not all easily identifiable but one is clearly a steam boiler. It is likely that these objects are not usually visible as no other references to them could be traced.

David stated his belief that this wreck was that of the Tom Telford. The National Inventory includes an entry for a recorded loss of this name. The entry is for an unlocated wreck derived from Whitaker’s Off Scotland database. The Tom Telford was a steam lighter or puffer built in 1844 and lost on the 19th of September 1919 with a cargo of bricks in Digg Bay, an alternative name for Staffin Bay. The identification seems likely to be correct based on the location and nature of the remains.

No exact coordinates for the wreck were available but the site falls within the intertidal zone near the low water mark and the photographs provided suggest it is near the north or centre of the main beach.

Coordinates: 147600,868700

Accuracy: 20m