Seals (Animals)

Account of the preparation of seals for eating in Uibhist a Tuath/North Uist, including pressing blubber to extract oils. Carmichael recalls tasting the flesh of a young seal on Heisgeir [Heisker/Monach Isles] and that it was 'very agreeable.' and like venison. The accompanying proverb reads 'Bu mhath am biadh feamanaich aran seagail agus saill roin'.

Volume 2, Autumn Edition 1993 of Ark File. The magazine of the RZSS.

This edition includes stories on site developement at Edinburgh Zoo, the Prehensile tailed skink, sealions at British zoos, updates from the Highland Wildlife Park, and details on the arrivals and departures of animals at RZSS sites.

A collection of lantern slides, possibly taken by Mary Elizabeth Gillespie, Thomas Gillespie's wife. The photographs are mainly of animals at Edinburgh Zoo. Further details of individual slides can be found at item level.

Fragment of a poem beginning 'Chunna mise sin s cha b ionagh, Na muca marra mor mora a seinn'' and accompanying note that it was composed by a guilty man about to be hanged [and who had to compose twelve false verses to escape the noose].

Incomplete notes on the different areas and pennylands in the north west of Uibhist a Tuath/North Uist and the proportion of caught seals they receive and an accompanying note relating to Odar, the Viking raider, whose head was buried in Griminis/Griminish.

Letters from Paul Murray to Thomas Gillespie regarding a seal caught at Castlehill. The seal was given to the RZSS. Letters date from the 21st and 28th August 1922.

Note about seal-hunting grounds under the heading 'Roin' describing how Haisgeir [Theisgeir/Heisker/Monach Isles] seals were divided into different grounds for the crew at sea, Griminnis and Chill-a-Pheadair [Griminis/Griminish and Cille Pheadair/Kilpheder, both Uibhist a Tuath/North Uist].

Note about seal hunting rights in a grant by King David I as recorded in Pennant's A tour in Scotland, and voyage to the Hebrides, 1772 (see bibliography below).

Note about sealife probably collected on Ìle/Islay which reads 'Luga gheal like the one on shore. Larg[e] seal as big as any ox in Laudal [Labhdal/Laudale]. Ron [ròin or seals] fond of ceol.'

Note about seals at Griminis, North Uist [Griminish, Uibhist a Tuath] that their cry is often mistaken for the cry of a child and that they are 'driven by storms from Hausgeir and take shelter among the rocks and reefs in the sound between Griminis and Vàllay' [Eilean Hasgeir/Haskeir Island and Bhàlaigh].