Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

My mother also received a telegram from her Auntie Flora. For reference, the photo below shows my mother together with her auntie. My mother was probably 15 or 16 years old at the time. The cottage in the background is most likely the cottage at Cuagach, Eigg, which as of 2008 was lying derelict.   

Flora was married to John MacKinnon from Muck.¹³ He was a second cousin to my grandmother, Sarah MacKinnon.¹⁴ As mentioned, John MacKinnon was grieve of Kildonnan farm (roughly 1930-1935), where my mother spent her summer holidays when she was a young girl. 

He retired in 1935 when my mother was 14 years old. Uncle John’s family eventually retired to a croft at Cuagach.

¹³ See birth certificate and death certificates, born in 1868, died 1961.
¹⁴ Conversation with my mother.