Autumn edition of antiquarian magazine out now

Author Dr Steven Sutcliffe tells readers about the frequent trips the journalist, photographer, vegetarian and conscientious objector, born in Renfrewshire in 1884, made to Kintyre, including, allegedly, his honeymoon with his wife Cathie.

In the following piece, Moira Burgess writes about renowned novelist and poet Naomi Mitchison, born in 1897, who lived most of her life in Carradale until her death in 1999 aged 101.

The article makes particular mention of the literary legend’s 1939 poem ‘The Alban Goes Out’, about a Carradale fishing boat, as well as her life in East Kintyre, where she immersed herself in local life.

In the article ‘Growing up in Kintyre in the 1950s’, Rosemary Crawford Hill provides a fascinating account of leaving her home on Islay and settling in Kintyre, including naming some of her most memorable teachers.

Retired history teacher Alan Harrow then shares an account of an interview he carried out with First World War veteran Duncan McSporran at Campbeltown’s Cottage Hospital in 1980, including tales of time hunting for German U-boats in the Kilbrannan Sound.

Other topics include a well-attended Highland Games in Carradale in 1939, the ‘mysterious’ monthly Argyllshire Magazine that was founded in 1833, and what is believed to be graves of four children who died of a fever at the Mull of Kintyre in the late 18th or early 19th century.

Flora and fauna feature, too, both in Mr Martin’s regular ‘By Hill and Shore’ feature and an article by Dr Jenn Lee’s on Kintyre’s remnant temperate rainforest.

To read the aforementioned articles, and much more, pick up a copy of the Kintyre Magazine from The Old Bookshelf, The Kintyre Larder, Made In Kintyre and Coastal Design in Campbeltown, in Muneroy Stores in Southend or in Carradale Community Shop.