Mallaig Heritage Centre Publications

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A selection of other books and DVDs relevant to the area can be obtained from the Mallaig Heritage Centre Shop at Amazon.com


POSTAGE to the United Kingdom: postal charges are for delivery to addresses in the United Kingdom . Please contact us if you wish items to be posted to a different country, so that we can calculate the correct postage.

If you are purchasing more than one item the postage charged may be more than the actual cost of postage and packing. In this event the excess charge will be refunded to you.


Image of Lochaber No More! Lochaber No More! Brian J. Murray
£5.95 (+ £1.50 postage)

The War Memorials in Arisaig and Morar record the deaths of thirty men and one woman who died while serving their country during World War 1. Thre eldest was 47 years old when he died, the youngest only eighteen.

A century later few memories of them survive but Brian Murray has searched public archives in the UK, Canada and Australia to provide us with accounts of their lives and how they died

Like the army in which most of them served, the names listed on the two memorials represent all walks of life, from the two sons of Lady Gertrude Nicholson to sons of crofters, fishermen and railwaymen. Some were professional soldiers with more than a decade of experience, others were conscripts who arrived on the battlefield in the closing weeks of the war.

All, however, deserve to be remembered.

78 pages including 20 photographs. ISBN 978-0-9565853-6-3


Image of The People and Gentry of Morar The People and Gentry of Morar Alasdair Roberts
£9.50 (+ £1.90 postage)

The district of Morar stretches far inland on both sides of Scotland's deepest loch. It lies at the heart of the Rough Bounds, known to Gaels of former times as "The Highlands of the Highlands". The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw its population move inexorably west to create new villages at Morar and Mallaig, leaving ancient settlements further east to become overgrown by rushes and bracken.

Alasdair Roberts has drawn upon years of research and local knowledge to produce a detailed history of the people of North and South Morar. Old gentry families and more recent ones are part of the story.

230 pages including 35 illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9565853-7-0


Image of Knoydart to Port Phillip Knoydart to Port Phillip Robert MacIsaac
£17.95 (+ £2.95 postage)

Knoydart to Port Phillip is the genealogy of the Victorian Maclsaacs, who emigrated in 1852 from the Knoydart district in the western Scottish Highlands to Melbourne Port Phillip.
The book identifies the MacIsaac family's Knoydart origin, the reasons for the family's emigration to Port Phillip and describes the pioneering lives of the future generations in central Victoria and Melbourne. The book chronicles the MacIsaac family members across eight generations and includes research into several maternal line ancestors and relatives: the Gillespies, Moffatts, Stewarts, Mooneys, O'Briens, MacDonalds, Gemmills, Thomsons, Connors, and Dwyers.
It is a book full of family facts, events and stories of perseverance and tragedy.

325 pages, illustrated. ISBN 978-1-92255361-4


Image of "Built upon Herring" by Mallaig Oral History Project
£9.95 (+ £1.80 postage)

With the opening of the railway in 1901 the hitherto isolated hamlet of Mallaig found itself perfectly situated to exploit the rich fishing grounds of the Sound of Sleat and the Minch.

Within a few years it had become one of the most important fishing ports on the west coast of Scotland and, for a brief period in the 1970s, was the busiest herring port in Europe.

This history of Mallaig uses oral history interviews carried out by the Mallaig Oral History Project and archive material from Mallaig Heritage Centre and the West Highland Museum to tell how the fishing industry became established and how the community developed.

212 pages including 112 photographs and illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9565853-0-1


Image of When The Fishing Was On When The Fishing Was On
£9.00 (+ £1.30 postage)

Between 2008 and 2010 Mallaig Heritage Centre undertook an ambitious oral history project to interview and record memories of the great West Coast herring fishery.

This DVD uses a selection of the interviews recorded by the project, along with archive video and photographs, to tell the story of the heyday of the Mallaig herring and lobster fisheries, the kippering sheds and of the "herring girls" who followed the fishing fleets around the coast of Britain.

DVD - PAL format - running time: 60 minutes


Image of Rentals for Moidart and Arisaig 1718 Rentals for Moidart and Arisaig 1718 edited by Denis Rixson
£1.20 (+ £1.00 postage)

This booklet is a transcription of the rentals of the confiscated Clanranald lands in Moidart and Arisaig (National Archive of Scotland ref. GD201/5/1257/1 and GD201/5/1257/2), with an introduction by Denis Rixson. The rentals list those tenants who held land directly from Clanranald and the location of their holdings.

First published 2003 - 22 pages


Image of Lost Ancestors: Island families in 1765 on Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna Lost Ancestors: Island families in 1765 on Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna edited by Julian Munby
£4.95 (+ £1.00 postage)

A transcription of Neill McNeill's Census of the Small Isles Parish with an introduction and accompanying notes.

Published 2007, reprinted 2020 - 32 pages


Image of Chapels of the Rough Bounds Chapels of the Rough Bounds by Alasdair Roberts
£7.50 (+ £1.50 postage)

The lands lying between Loch Hourn and Loch Shiel on the west coast of Inverness-shire were affected little by the Scottish Reformation. For over two centuries a handful of missionaries and "heather-priests" toiled to keep Catholicism alive in the area.

With the passing of the Scottish Relief Bill in 1793 priests no longer needed to work in secret and permanent places of worship appeared. These ranged from modest chapels, some of which now stand as monuments to congregations which have moved elsewhere, to grander buildings in Arisaig and Glenfinnan.

This book draws on a wide range of sources to provide a history of all the known Catholic chapels and churches in the Rough Bounds as well as a wealth of detail about the lives of many priests who have served the district in the last three centuries.

160 pages including 40 photographs and illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9565853-5-6


Image of Lady Lovat School: a Short History Lady Lovat School: a Short History by Alasdair Roberts
£3.95 (+ £1.30 postage)

Lady Lovat School admitted its first pupils in 1915 but its story begins a few years earlier at Glasnacardoch. Here the district's biggest school became overcrowded after the railway reached Mallaig and the fishing-port grew in size. Glasnacardoch School officially had space for sixty pupils in one large room but numbers rose to over ninety. Some walked from Beoraid, which was becoming Morar village with a railway station and hotel. Others walked two miles from Mallaigvaig, although during the short days of winter when there was heavy rain or snow their parents often kept them at home.

This history of Morar Primary School was written to mark its centenary using information drawn from school logbooks, newspaper reports and the memories of former teachers and pupils.

45 pages including 20 photographs. ISBN 978-0-9565853-4-9


Image of Yes, No, Maybe - A death in Kylesmorar in 1830 Yes, No, Maybe - A death in Kylesmorar in 1830 Brian J Murray
£9.50 (+ £1.50 postage)

On the morning of Friday 25th June 1830, the day that King George IV died, the body of Catherine Gillies was found lying on the shore at Kylesmorar on Loch Nevis.Suspicion fell on her husband, Archibald MacLellan of Ardnamurach and he was arrested and held while the circumstances of her death were investigated.

Although the case was reported in the Inverness Courier under the headline Murder of a woman by her husband in Glenelg the case against MacLellan was found Not Proven and he was set free.

In this volume Brian Murray provides us with a rare insight into the workings of justice and the law in the West Highlands at the time, providing transcripts of depositions by the witnesses, citations and reports used at the trial, as well as the Minutes of the trial. It makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the communities of North Morar and their inhabitants.

87 pages, no illustrations. Privately published 2015 (no ISBN). New revised edition 2021.


Image of Fishing in Mallaig Fishing in Mallaig by James R. Coull and Malcolm Poole.
£1.95 (+ £1.00 postage)

Mallaig is as much a creation of the fishing industry as of the railway and in the modern period has been one of the main fishing ports of the west coast of Scotland.

This booklet tells the story of how Mallaig developed from a crofting hamlet into a bustling economic centre and, using the records of the old Fishery Board for Scotland, examines the background to the changes in quantity and type of catches during the twentieth century.

Published 2005 - 24 pages, 14 black & white photographs


Image of Bound for Valparaiso Bound for Valparaiso edited by Deirdre Roberts
£6.50 (+ £1.50 postage)

It has often been said that everyone has a story in them, but unfortunately many of these stories are never heard. Not everyone has the ability to tell their story, or someone willing to listen and appreciate the story. Every once in a while, however, a voice reaches out from the past and shares with us personal experiences that today are the subject of films and novels.

Patrick Murray is one such and we are fortunate that he set his story down in letters to his son Charlie, who was serving in the RAF during World War 2.

Patrick was born in County Antrim in 1872. At the age of 18 he left home, travelled to Glasgow and became a sailor, firstly on small coasters trading up the west coast of Scotland and then to deep-water full rigged ships and steamers travelling to the Americas and Australia. Along the way he took part in a mutiny, survived the dangers of a revolution in Brazil and made his way ashore after being shipwrecked no less than three times.

114 pages, illustrated. ISBN 978-0-9565853-2-5


Image of Captains and Commanders Captains and Commanders by Tommy Ralston
£9.99 (+ £1.80 postage)

A native of Campbeltown, Tommy Ralston has spent a lifetime on the West Coast of Scotland, working as a fisherman, fish-buyer and lifeboat coxswain.

In this book he shares his memories of many of the characters who made his experience of the fishing industry so enjoyable and recalls the heyday of the graceful ring-net boats that once hunted herring between Ayrshire and Stornoway.

318 pages, illustrated. ISBN 978-0-9565853-1-8