The earliest record of Arileod as an area name is on the Langland Map of the Coll estate in 1794. More details, however, were known about Feall. Baptismal records of the Kirk Session show Feall to be a very populous area. And so too in prehistoric times. A slow meander through the little dunes just up from Arileod beach (Port an t-Saoir) will sometimes yield tiny bits of broken pottery, flint and lumps of iron slag.

Records for Arileod in particular do not appear until the close of the 18th century. Up till then it seems to have been part of Feall lands.

MacLean of Coll's factor or baillie at that time was Alexander MacLean. The earlier births of his family were at Breachacha but by 1797 they are re­corded at Arileod. Baillic MacLean was married to Mary, daughter of Neil Ma­cLean of Crossapol, the farmer who features in the Boswell/Johnson diaries.

Remarks in the Session Reports indicate that the baillie was farming so he might well have been the first tenant of the present day farmhouse.

He was succeeded in 1817 by Allan MacLean, formerly of Acha, also mar­ried to a daughter of MacLean of Crossapol. This is the famous family that prospered and bought their own boat, the John Dunscombe. They sailed from Coll to Tasmania in 1832, a truly epic journey.

As soon as they had left a Mr John MacLean became tacksman of Arileod. He had come to Coll with his family about 1820 from Dull in Perthshire to farm Grishipol. However he did not prosper like the previous tenants in Arileod and by the late '50s he appears to have come down in the world, farming only 80 acres at Mibosd.

When John Lorne Stewart bought the Estate in 1856 dramatic changes came to the island, agriculturally as well as socially. New dairy farming practices were introduced and Arileod, like all the other tenant farms, started on a career of cheesemaking that culminated in the fame of Coll cheeses being supplied to the House of Com­mons.

The census of 1861 shows a Donald MacLean, newly married, in Arileod. His wife Catherine McColl from Lis­more, won many awards for her weav­ing (in between cheesemaking, no doubt) at the Oban Competitions. The 1861 census was the first to ask how many rooms in each house had a win­dow. Donald claimed four. In the `71 census he claimed seven. The acreage was given as 150 arable but in `81 the windows are six and the acreage is 350. Better more land than windows?

A notable feature of Arileod was the forty acre field stretching from the Castle to the main road. This good land was disjoined (for whatever reason, but one can guess) and added to the Breachacha land when the senior Ma­cLeans' tenancy came to an end and was taken on by their son, Lachie Hector, and daughter, Flora, in 1922. The yearly rent was increased by £30 to £170. Many Arileod farmers since La­chie Hector and Flora have stood at the windows that look straight on to that `stolen' land with great regret.

Flora, quite a character with a bun of hair on the top of her head and more interest in farming than housework, died at the beginning of the 1930's. Lachie Hector gave up Arileod shortly after, unable to carry on, and went to live with his brother in Dalmally. The Laird offered the tenancy to the Irvines farming the large dairy farm of Crossapol. Despite the family's great love of Crossapol the easier access to Arileod was too tempting. (Crossapol was not lived in for more than 30 years after the Irvines left).

The rent asked of the Irvines was £ 125. Not a benignity on the part of the landlord but more a reflection of the downward trend in the great Coll dairy farming industry and further reduction of acreage.

By 1939 Arileod was in the hands of the Laird again and the property was used as a holiday house. Wash hand basins were installed but there was precious little water to flow into them, Arileod never having ever had a sat­isfactory water supply.

In the '40s Hugh MacKinnon, his Aunt Morag and sister Morag were moved from Broadhills to Arileod on a temporary basis. Broadhills was to be improved. But in the way of some things Coll, Broadhills was never fin­ished and the MacKinnons stayed on.

When Hugh married Chrissie that was when Arileod was split in two, the 'Morags' living in the half beside the road, Hugh and Chrissie on the far side. Coming from the mainland, Chrissie wrestled with the water problem. "Many's the time I felt like putting my foot through those fancy washbasins that never held water! Moving to the Village in 1956 had many compensa­tions," she recalls.

The next tenants were the MacLen­nans, Flora and Alex and their children, Elsie, Margaret and Willie. The be­ginnings of a new economy, tourism, was developing. With encouragement from Jean Jardine at the Hotel, Flora and Alex let out the west side of the farmhouse to summer visitors. The holiday accommodation consisted of kitchen, lounge, 3 bedrooms and bathroom all for £20 per week. "Some folk thought that was a bit dear" says Alex today, shaking his head and smiling.

The MacLennans put in gas lighting and sunk a 4000 gallon tank for a re­liable water supply. The washhand

basins were finally in use.

Flora was the last person to make the Coll cheeses at Arileod. No longer for export to the House of Commons but for her own pleasure and the delight of visitors and friends.

On the retiral of Flora and Alec to Kilbride in 1986, Arileod came up for sale by the Estate for the first time. The owners are now Brian and Moira Maclntyre from Mainland Argyll. After centuries of precarious tenancy, own­ership of Arileod brought great moti­vation to improve the property and thanks to a great deal of hard work - "Five long years of living in a builder's site!" - and help from the ADP (Ag­ricultural Development Programme) and Strathclyde's Housing Action Scheme, Arileod is now one of the many `palaces' on the island. The Maclntyres were adamant that the character of the old house was not lost in the improvements. The old chimney pots were retained as was the very characteristic byre buttresses. As much as possible of the old house was reinstated.

Whilst renovating Brian and Moira discovered signatures behind the old hall panelling dated 13th August 1891. The workmen then - a McLeod, a McKinnon, a McFarlane - also curi­ously recorded how exceptionally hot was the weather. Possibly it was at this time that the dormer windows were added to Arileod.

An oft repeated item of folklore is that the byre that opens onto the To­tronald road was used for a time as a school. A General Assembly (Church) School was opened in Arinagour in 1826 but by 1829 it had relocated to Arileod. About 1859, at the time of the Stewart reorganisation, it moved to Kilbride.

Today it is the byre on the other side of the house that will be the oft repeated item of folklore in the future. After the inwintered sheep arc put out in the Spring the great byre is scrubbed and cleaned and there is always some very good reason for a memorable barn dance - and if there isn't, the Macln­tyres will certainly think of one.

The origin of the name Arileod is possibly from the gaelic, meaning MacLeod's Sheiling. Whoever MacLeod was, he - or she - lived be­fore, or was never entered into the records.

Mairi Hedderwick.
(With acknowledgements to Betty
MacDougall for census particulars.)