#kinagarry

Mrs Catherine MacDonald spinning at a wheel, watched by granddaughter Peggy, at Kinagarry on the West Coast of Scotland. Grandmother MacDonald is using a simple but strongly-built 'little' or 'Saxony' wheel. This was a static form of spinning, but the ancient mobile form of spinning with a distaff and spindle would still be being used in the late nineteenth century by girls tending the flocks. This photograph was taken by MEM Donaldson around 1905. She was a skilled photographer and specialised in topographical scenes and in portraits of her neighbours at Sanna, of people in Morar and Arisaig, and of the people she met on her travels around rural Scotland. ~ From Stories of Scotland Podcast

Catherine MacLaren, also known as Mrs Angus MacDonald, feeding the hens in Kinagarry around 1905. Catherine is calling out for the hens to come and be fed. The thatched hut in the background is the hen house. In the crofting community, the women did a great deal of work on the land, especially in the periods that the men were away fishing. The women would tend to the livestock, get fuel for the fire, and through spinning provide clothing and bedding for the rest of the family. This photograph was taken by MEM Donaldson.