PLACES Of LOCAL INTEREST.

H. A. MacKinnon.

In 1841 Coll had a population of 1500. The staple diet was potatoes and oatmeal, sufficient grown on the island to see the inhabitants through the winter. Every inch of ground suitable for cultivation was planted out in the shape of lazybeds. The form of these far from 'lazy' beds can still be seen all over the island to this day. (See Coll Magazine; 1984; Issue no. 2; p.15).

Other sources of food were whelks, limpets and any other kind of edible shell fish. Fish were in abundance and easily caught without a boat. Casting off the rocks with a long bamboo pole was a common practice - still used in the 1970s, incidently. Another means of catching fish was to build a circular stone wall on the shore at half tide. After the following high tide had receded to below the wall-trap, many a stranded fish could be collected.

Arinagour was of little importance at that time, Fidheaslum, past the Mhaoil headland, being the main port of Coll. Smacks - one masted sail boats - regularly traded between the mainland and the islands. The remains of the dry stone jetty where they berthed can be seen at Fidheaslum to this day.

A large number of the population of Coll lived on that east side in such places as Lagabheag, Trealabheigard, Bhulabheag, Aornan, Trealabheig Iosal, Canadidh and Fidheaslum.

There were a few thatched cottages in Arinagour; three above Shore Street, one or two below Tigh na Mara at Port na Fennag; one over at the Hotel; the last but not least, the still standing building known today as the Smiddy or Smithy. It used to be the local inn, appropriately named Toll a'Bhaladh (Hole in the Wall) for the simple reason that customers stood out in the open and were served through an opening in the wall.

The working Smiddy at that time was at Totamhor. The iron for bending the iron shoes for cart wheels can be seen on the shore side of the newly built road that leads up to the ruins on the side of Bheinn Direadh. These ruins are in the process of being traditionally reconstructed and will have heather thatch roofs.

When the Hotel was rebuilt in the 1880s, Toll a'Bhaladh was converted to a smithy.

Another place of interest is the ruin on the left hand side of the road below Totronald farmhouse. This used to be a shop run by Ian Johnstone who sailed his own skiff to Tobermory to collect stores. Tobacco and tea were always top of the list, so the story goes. He was the father of the John Johnstone who later lived at Totamhor who was a keen activist in the Land League agitations at the end of the last century. His monument stands in the garden of Craigdarroch in the village.

But that is another story…