Hi Listers: I've been interested in the history of Port Ellen for a little while and finally am trying to purchase Jupp's book about the History of Islay to 1848- thinking maybe there would be some interesting information about the beginning of Port Ellen. I have not had any luck- not even as a used book. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is it even worth trying to locate? I'd also be interested in the Kildalton/Oa farms between 1790 and 1830- if they're discussed in the book. (I wonder if it was at the Museum when I visited and I just missed it. I guess it's out of print now?) Thanks!! Carolyn

Hi Carolyn, Di you try contacting the C & E Roy Bookstore in Bowmore? They had a lot of books on Islay and I can't remember if they had that one in stock when I was there 2 years ago. Their phone # is 01496 810304 or their mailing address is Shore St, Bowmore Isle of Islay, Argyll PA43 7LD. You can also link to info about their which showed some books (I didn't have time to check them all at the moment) at www.islay.com Good Luck! Christine Harenberg CAROLYN HARMON <charm59@sbcglobal.net> wrote: Hi Listers: I've been interested in the history of Port Ellen for a little while and finally am trying to purchase Jupp's book about the History of Islay to 1848- thinking maybe there would be some interesting information about the beginning of Port Ellen. I have not had any luck- not even as a used book. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is it even worth trying to locate? I'd also be interested in the Kildalton/Oa farms between 1790 and 1830- if they're discussed in the book. (I wonder if it was at the Museum when I visited and I just missed it. I guess it's out of print now?) Thanks!! Carolyn ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thanks, Christine. I tried CE Roy and the museum by email. No luck. I know CE Roy had quite a collection of books and was really disappointed when they said it was out of print. Still searching, Carolyn

Hi Carolyn, You may want to bookmark the site for AbeBooks at: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry If you enter "History of Islay" in the title field you will find 24 results, unfortunately none of which are by Jupp. HTH Warren ----- Original Message ----- From: "CAROLYN HARMON" <charm59@sbcglobal.net> To: <sct-islay-l@rootsweb.com> Sent: October 16, 2006 17:54 Subject: [SCT-ISLAY] history of Islay > Hi Listers: > I've been interested in the history of Port Ellen for a little while and finally am trying to purchase Jupp's book about the History of Islay to 1848- thinking maybe there would be some interesting information about the beginning of Port Ellen. I have not had any luck- not even as a used book. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is it even worth trying to locate? I'd also be interested in the Kildalton/Oa farms between 1790 and 1830- if they're discussed in the book. (I wonder if it was at the Museum when I visited and I just missed it. I guess it's out of print now?) > > Thanks!! > Carolyn > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Carolyn Try http://www.edina.ac.uk/statacc/ for the Statistical Accounts Cheerio Helen > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Experience Live Search from your PC or mobile device today. http://www.live.com/?mkt=en-ca

Hi Carolyn, I have a copy of Jupp's History of Islay. It literally goes "from the earliest times", through the Lordship of the Isles, the Cawdor period, and through the Campbells. Port Ellen was founded in 1821, and I remember somewhere reading a list of the first residents of the town, but it wasn't in this book. (I think it was in Booth's lists of Islay People). Since it is out of print, and it's pouring buckets outside, here goes: page 194 "...by far the most ambitious of his (Walter Frederick Campbell) most ambitious of his villages is Port Ellen. Like Bowmore, this was to be a port, the base of a fishing fleet, a centre of industry and trading centre of the parish of Kildalton and Oa. It was cleverly sited on the shores of the only really safe haven on the southwest coast of Islay, Loch Leodamais (often known as Leodamais Bay), which General Lambert had used to land the guns for the seige of Dunyvaig castle in 1615 (see Chapter 16). It had been a little used since, for it was a very shallow, marshy inlet between dangerous outcrops of rock. Only one part of the bay was usable as a landing place, below the ard (Rubha a "chuinnlein) on the south side of the inlet, where there were probably some fishermen's houses before Port Ellen was built. Before a village could be built the site had to be drained; to be usable as a port in all weathers and at all times a pier and a lighthouse had to be provided. To drain the marsh, ditches were dug, one of which ran down to the sea beside the site on which the church of St. John now stands. Another ran past the Islay Hotel. Both these drains were later put underground, but they still cause trouble occasionally. A pier was constructed on what was a rocky islet on the eastern side of the bay, reached by a bridge initially. The lighthouse, at Carraig Fhada, was added in 1832, and dedicated to Walter Frederick's first wife. Given the pier, the lighthouse and safer harbour than the little bays at Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg, which were used by distilleries and local fishermen. It is noteworthy that in the Statistical Account of 1795, the Kildalton minister refers to Loch Cnoc as the only safe haven in his parish, and makes no reference to the three small distillery bays, or to Leodamais. The plan of Port Ellen village provided for a crescent (Frederick Crescent) of a number of terraces of houses frontinig Leodamais Bay, with two principal streets radiating from the crescent, Charlotte Street northeastwards past Port Imeraval towards the Oa and Bowmore, and New Street (now called Lennox Street) westwards parallel with the coast towards Lagavulin. At first there was apparently no road betweenthe houses in Frederick Crescent and the seashore, and all the houses were served by the back road, behind the houses and their gardens. A lane fave access to the pier. The plan remains virtually unchanged today, apart from three buildings between Frederick Crescent and the seashore, the road in front of Frederick Crescent, and additional houses behind the crescent, climbing up the hills and spreading towards and along Port Imeraval. It was apparently John Ramsay who allowed the temperance hotel and a police station to be built between Frederick Crescent and the sea, and Mr. Hindle, to whom he sold the village in 1921, who failed to stop an enterprising baker from erecting a 'temporary' wooden structure there without permission. Port Ellen Distillery, at Port Imeraval, was opened in 1827 and helped to draw people into the new village, but it was not until the 1830s that a significant number of houses was built and occupied. Alexander and Islay Shanks, writing in the Third Statistical Account, attribute the Port Ellen building boom of the 1830s to the property qualification required under the Franchise Act of 1832 to secure the vote, thought with what truth it is impossible to say. In 1836, Lord Teignmouth noted that although "several tradesmen have settled...none of them thrive as yet, except masons and wrights, who are employed in the building of houses." As in the case of Bowmore, the new village took a considerable time to become fully established, and it was not until 1888 and 1889 that the last houses in Charlotte Street were built. House-holders in Port Ellen were offered a "four-acre inducement", in that they were offered lotments of four acres outside the village on which to fraze cattle and raise crops. Many of these lotments survive as crofts today. Most of the houses built in Port Ellen in the first half of the nineteenth century also had byres in their back gardens, which opened onto what is now the 'back road', in which their cattle could be sheltered in winter" You can also find out more by reading the Statistical Accounts (they are online. I don't have the website, but you can probably google for it). I hope this helps, Toni >From: CAROLYN HARMON <charm59@sbcglobal.net> > >Hi Listers: > I've been interested in the history of Port Ellen for a little while and >finally am trying to purchase Jupp's book about the History of Islay to >1848- thinking maybe there would be some interesting > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Buy, Load, Play. The new Sympatico / MSN Music Store works seamlessly with Windows Media Player. Just Click PLAY. http://musicstore.sympatico.msn.ca/content/viewer.aspx?cid=SMS_Sept192006