THE OLD PIER

In 1846, potato blight devastated the crops of the Highlands and Islands, leaving a large proportion of the population without their main food supply. Rising population, and changes in the agricultural system had led to an increasing dependence on the potato for many people, so that blight meant widespread starvation. The famine continued until the early 1850. Each year meant greater hardship for those with little or no land on which they could grow grain. On Mclean of Coll's lands on Coll and Mull, the potato crop failed entirely. Potatoes had provided three-quarters of the total food, and there were 180 families without any land beyond garden ground, and therefore no way of providing themselves with food. There was an immediate response to the plight of the Hebrides from the whole of Britain and from the colonies. The government sent shiploads of grain to be purchased by the landowners with money lent for land drainage schemes. A charity, the Committee of Destitution, sent grain to the islands in return for work on roads and piers, and the Scottish Fisheries Board organised a scheme to assist landowners to build and equip fishing boats, and to build quays, in the hope of providing more employment and money to buy food, and thus reduce dependence on the potatoes grown on the little land available. The old pier was built under the scheme set up by the Fisheries Board, with the assistance of the Committee of Destitution's fund.

The Fisheries Board were quick to take initial action. As early as October 1846 a fisheries cutter had been sent around the islands, inspecting boats which could be used for cod-fishing and looking at places where piers and quays would be useful. John Stewart the commander of the cutter, reported to Edinburgh that Arinagour was the only haven in Coll 'where a vessel of fifty tons can anchor at any state of tide. I noticed a small pier at the head of the bay requiring a good deal of repair. It could not contain more than one or two smacks or vessels. It would add much to the security of the vessels trading between Tiree, Coll, and the island of Mull and other places were the present pier enlarged and repaired. The inhabitants of Coll are capable of building with undressed and hammer-dressed stones.'

Unfortunately, then as now, the wheels of government turned very slowly. There was another year of famine during which the landless people on Coll worked at land drainage and road building in return for grain from the Committee of Destitution, or from the government store-ship at Tobermory. Nothing was done about a pier except surveying and estimating the cost of construction.

Not until 14th February 1848 was the Secretary of the Fisheries Board able to inform Hugh Maclean of Coll that the government's authority for proceeding with the pier had been received. He continued, 'I am inclined to think there can be no objection to going on with this work this season, so soon as the weather will admit of it.' The estimated cost was £300, of which Hugh MacLean had to find half. The Secretary emphasised the importance of MacLean's contribution: 'so soon as I am informed that the above sum has been lodged in the Royal Bank in my name in the account opened there for aiding in the relief of destitution in the Highlands by the improvement of creeks and havens, I shall immediately take steps for carrying on the work.'

There lay the rub. Hugh MacLean of Coll could not pay his share, and the estate was in trust. He turned to the Committee of Destitution for help. In April that same year, 1848, the Committee's inspector, Dr Boyter, reported from his headquarters at Tobermory that he had recently been to Coll, where he had 'seen a large supply of meal landed at the eastend, and heard that Mr Maclean intends laying before the Board the estimates and plan of a 'pier which, as an accommodation for fishers, would be most serviceable ... When I mention that there are 108 families who have neither land nor means of living, I conceive that employment at this pier would be the most serviceable way of employing their time. I therefore most earnestly recommend Mr Maclean of Coll's claim for some pecuniary assistance in the erection of this pier.'

Still nothing happened, and in his report for 1849 to the Committee of Destitution, Dr Boyter again pointed out 'the lack of a good quay or landing place at Arinagour' adding that 'Mr Maclean although always generous in the past had no more capital, and could not produce the finance for the pier.'

This time he was successful. After two years, the Committee of Destitution decided that the pier was a worthy cause. In its 1850 report the Committee stated that during that year, in return for 377 bolls of Indian cornmeal, oatmeal and seed, the people of Coll had constructed more of the road past Grishipoll, had extended the west end road to the mill, and that the pier at Aringour had been erected. It was 30 yards long, 40 feet broad, and 12 feet high. It still lacked one or two tiers in height, but was already considered useful. And so it remains today.