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At the start:
In 1966,
after a discussion between three people at a local Gala day about the
amount of local history being lost, due to the lack of an official body
based locally to collect, record and store information, it was decided
to call a public meeting. A good number of people attended, a society
was formed and a committee elected.
For the first year or so we held various meetings and talks in the local
school, but it wasn't until the Elgol Village Hall was completed in 1997
and a small room rented as a base, that things really began to get off
the ground.
Among other areas requiring our attention - such as family trees, recording
place names and people, and organising walks to sites of interest - it
was very obvious that within the community there existed a substantial
number of old photographs, and that there was a need to collect them together,
archive them and make them available for the public to view.
With financial assistance from the Local Enterprise Company, computer
equipment was purchased with the scanning of photographs specifically
in mind. In true professional manner, two volunteers were recruited -
one with no computer experience whatsoever and the other with a little
computer knowledge but no experience of scanning. The results were predictable:
ink was wasted, paper was wasted, photos were lost, tempers frayed and
frustration set in. Brains were picked, arms twisted and eventually, out
of the chaos a system slowly began to emerge.
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The collection:
to
date we have a collection of approximately 1600 photographs. They are
scanned and printed r on photo quality paper with an inkjet printer.
The digital images are numbered and then filed in sub-directories according
to area: Torrin, Elgol, etc. Further subdivisions are made into
categories: Crofting, School, Landscape, People, Fishing...
The scanned prints are put in clear pockets and field numerically in
A4 ring binders according to category: Torrin Crofting, Elgol Fishing,
etc.
We try to keep the amount of data on the computer's hard drive to a minimum,
so we transfer images to CDRom on a regular basis. When we get 100 photographs
in a category, we make two - or sometimes three - copies of the disc,
one for accessing the images, the others stored for archival purposes
(usually in a different location).
The photographs are available to the general public on request, and displays
are given - the most successful is on our local Gala day.
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The locality:
Elgol and Torrin are small crofting and fishing villages situated in the
parish of Strath, in the Isle of Skye. These lands were traditionally
held by the Clan Mackinnon, some of whom supported Bonnie Prince Charlie
during the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745.
Gaelic is still spoken in the area, and taught to the children in Elgol
Primary School.
The area also includes Glasnakille, Drinan, Meabost, Riachan, Strathaird,
Robostan, Kilmaree, Kirkabost, Keppoch, Camusfuinary, Dun Ringill, Faolin,
Airidh na Creag, Kilbride, Suishnish, Boreraig and Swordale.
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