The Tangle

Location: Middleton & the shores

Story:
Kelp, also known as tangle and seaweed, has been found on the beaches of Tiree for hundreds of years and the island inhabitants gathered it, burnt it and used the ash as a manure to improve their land, in cooking and in many other ways.  Kelp ash is rich in iodine and alkali and, towards the end of the 18th century, opportunities arose for the ash to be sold commercially for use in soap and glass production.  The inhabitants of Tiree collected, dried and burnt the kelp and it was sold commercially by the factor on behalf of the Duke of Argyll and the tenants, with the proceeds being divided between the Duke and the tenants.  Collecting the kelp required many hands - children and unskilled labourers – encouraging larger families, and the additional receipts from the sale of the kelp enabled the crofters to afford increased rents. Commercial exploitation of the kelp market on the west coast of Scotland reached its highest point during the Napoleonic Wars when imports of iodine and alkali from the continent came to a standstill. When the wars stopped in 1815 however, the bottom fell out of the market for Scottish kelp, with cheaper imports flooding the market. Additionally, the Leblanc process developed in the early 19th century, led to the replacement of kelp ash by common salt.  All of a sudden, there were fewer jobs for the extended family and a vital source of income for the island tenants vanished virtually overnight.

Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, who established the Middleton Kelp Works in 1863 had developed a particular interest into the economic applications of seaweed. Stanford met the 8th Duke of Argyll in 1862 and made his first visit to Tiree. Stanford’s British Seaweed Company Ltd built a factory at Middleton Farm which employed 16 men, supervised by James Sleven. It purchased seaweed from the crofters which was distilled in closed retorts to produce various products, including iodine and the gas which heated and lit the factory.  After 1885, Stanford claimed that the factory was only profitable when there was a high price for iodine and he focussed his attention on creating new products at his Clydeside works. The Middleton Kelp Works closed in 1901, two years after Stanford’s death.

Tiree provided the groundwork for Stanford’s new discoveries which included alginate products. 50 years after the Middleton Kelp Works closed, the algins that Stanford had recognised were widely used in the creation of artificial silk or viscose, from 1924 they were used in the production of rayon and, from 1935, in the production of nylon.

A further unexpected consequence of the Tiree kelp industry emerged in the late 19th century when discussions over the building of a new pier in Gott Bay led to a confrontation with the Crown over the ownership of the foreshores. The islanders’ traditional right to collect kelp from the shores was deemed to be evidence of the Duke’s ownership of the foreshores, as he (and the MacLeans before him) had officially ‘allowed’ such collection to take place over many hundreds of years.

Sources:
ECC Stanford ‘Retrospect of 1863’, Glasgow City Archives ref. TD871/4; Napier Commission Report, 1883; Patent for processing seaweed, 1875 AP 1209/931; Damage to Middelton Works due to storm, 1879 AP 1209/907/8; The ‘trucking’ system at Middleton in Lord Lorne’s diary, 1884 AP 1209/911/1; A new method of working seaweed, 1884 AP 1209/913/9.

Kelp Gathering

Location: 

Story:
Donald Sinclair vividly remembered kelp burning as it was practised around 1900:

‘I remember the kelp. The devil's of a work! It was hard going in my days when I was young, burning it and making kelp [ash luaithre na ceilpe] from it. This 'wrack' that grows on the tangles. At the beginning of May, the wrack is growing away from the tangle and another wrack grows. Well, you would see heaps of that [cast] wrack thrown on the beaches. They were hauling this wrack up, and spreading it on the grass or on the shingle. And the following day, if it was dry, you were turning it over with a graip [fork], and so on in succession until it was dry. When it was pretty dry, they were making small rucs [rucannan 'piles'] of it, similar to small rucs of hay. And later on, when it was dry, they were making big rucs of it. Then it was ready for burning. 

You'll see the kilns [àthan na ceilpe] this very day. They were building the kilns according to the amount of wrack you had. You were paving the bottom of the kiln with flat stones, and building the side with soft seaweed and stones so as to make the kiln airtight ... [The kilns were] two and half foot high, two foot wide at the bottom, and two foot six at the top, and about ten to fourteen feet long ... The seaweed was packed together between the stones. [A handful of dried grass or smouldering peat was used to start the fire]. I've seen kilns going day and night. 

And that kiln would output two or three tons of kelp at Kenavara over there. When all your wrack was on it you would see it [the molten slag] like porridge. You were poking [raking] it with an iron, back and forward, making it soft.  And then you were leaving it to cool. Tomorrow when you come round, it was as hard as that, and very tough to break. 

There's a place beside us on the right hand side [in West Hynish], and that place was divided into four. And there was another gully, and that was divided for one man. And further along there were three men, three shares ... It was like that right round the island of Tiree. Yes! The women were working too and the children, and very little you would get for it too! It was a healthy job, but it was not a nice job all the same ... When the kelp kiln was going in full swing you would see the smoke hundreds of miles away.’

Source: Donald Sinclair talking to Eric Cregeen on SA1968.246

Tatties

Location: The Manse, Gott Bay

Story:
In February 1847, the minister of Tiree, Neil Maclean, reached the decision that emigration was the only way to preserve the lives of many of the poorest people living on Tiree.  His views were shared by the eldest son of the 8th Duke of Argyll, who wrote a letter to Maclean, encouraging him to offer the people hope through emigration. Maclean read this letter to those attending both churches on Tiree (and in those days, most people went to church at least once on Sunday).  The population of the island had increased hugely over the preceding years and the island could barely supply sufficient food in a good year – with the failure of the potato crop there was no chance to save people from complete destitution and potential death. Maclean suggested that emigrating to North America offered the opportunity to start a new life in another country where working hard would enable people to build a new life in which they could live in comfort, but he also wanted the Marquis to persuade the Duke to support the emigrants by offering them financial aid as well as encouraging them to leave. These were sad times.

Sources: Letter from MacLean to the Marquis of Lorne, AP 1209/1531