Scope and Contents Note by John Ewen MacRury, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula entitled 'Coithean or Cuman' about making pails for milking. The size of the 'bleoghean' varied according to the number of cattle to be milked in the fold. 'There were twelve staves in it a black and white in succession and the twelveth (sic) was five or six inches higher and thicker at the top. It was the handle.' If the staves of a 'Coithean' showed their original colour then the milkmaid was deemed 'clean and tidy and qualified to make...

Scope and Contents Note written by John Ewen MacRury, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula entitled 'La Feill Mhicheil' [St Michael's Day or Michaelmas] describing how it was observed all over the country. Some of the traditions entailed, pregnant women visiting burial grounds 'Believing that the sanctimonious odour of the graves was sufficient to prevent premature birth' and that similarly mares in foal would go 'deasal a chlaidh' [sunwise around the graveyard] unbridled. 'Aodhstar' is noted as headgear for...

Scope and Contents

'Old Phrase' written down by John Ewen MacRury, Beinn na Faoghla/Benbecula which reads 'An callach glucamach stucannach stachannach'.