1895 Muck Drownings

Today for a little something different, we move away from a local story and head on over to one of Scotland’s Small Isles. On the 2nd of August 1895, three men were lost when their boat capsized off the Isle of Muck.

David Weir (age 41), a dairy farmer and the main tenant on the Isle along with John Rae Carmichael (age 32), a friend who was on holiday and visiting from Leith, along with their young boatsman Donald McDougall (age 18) were all drowned that fateful day in the sound between Muck and Horse Island, a tidal island off the northwest coast.

Newspaper reports of the time say they may have been travelling from Muck to nearby Eigg for letters. There are also stories that they may have been heading to Horse Island to hunt for cormorants. Both may be true. Whatever their purpose it appears that their small boat was caught in a squall and capsized.

As of the 17th August 1895 none of the bodies had been recovered but reports later came in that on the 21st August John Carmichael’s body washed ashore and was buried in the island cemetery. It is unclear if the bodies of the other two unfortunate men were ever found.

In the A’chill Cemetery, also known as the Port Mor Cemetery, which is a beautiful and rugged graveyard dating from the medieval period, there is a large monument to the three men as well as a gravestone-type marker for Donald McDougall, placed there by his parents.

Donald McDougall

Donald McDougall was the eldest son of Alexander McDougall and Margaret Brown, though not the oldest in his family as he had several older half-siblings. Donald was born in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull with the family moving to Muck not long after he was born.

Alexander was a ploughman and his mother, before her marriage, had worked as a dairy maid. The McDougalls worked on the Weir farm and when Donald wasn’t working as a boatsman, he was an “Ag Lab” (agricultural labourer) on the dairy farm. After Donald’s death in 1895 his parents added one more child to their brood, a daughter born in 1896 whom they named Donalda.

John Rae Carmichael

John Rae Carmichael was born in Leith, the youngest son of Thomas Carmichael, a blacksmith, and Agnes Thomson. By at the least the age of 17, John working as a Commercial Clerk (1881 census) and a Merchants Clerk & Cashier (1891 census). His death record says his occupation was a “Clerk in Insurance Office” and his obituary says he had worked for 14 years as a trusted and valued cashier of John Lethum and Sons, Leith.

In 1891 John had been living with his widowed mother; his loss likely left her living alone. His father had died in 1885, his brother Peter had died in 1895 and his brother Thomas had moved to Australia. John’s small estate was given to his sister Janet, who seems to have moved home before she herself died in 1900. Their mother Agnes lived until 1911, with no family left. How John Carmichael knew David Weir and why he chose to holiday on the Isle of Muck that summer is unknown.

David Weir

David Weir was born in 1854 in Skipness, the son of William Weir and Agnes Anderson. William was a successful farmer who farmed the Gallanach Farm on the Isle of Coll. In 1878 he was given the lease for the farm on the Isle of Muck and he charged his two eldest sons, David and Alexander Anderson, with running it. The two men worked as partners until David married Grace Bryson in 1887, then he became the sole tenant. The Weirs converted what had been a sheep farm into the farm into a modern dairy producing cheese.

After David’s death the remaining Weir family, Grace and her children William, Elizabeth and Agnes left the Isle of Muck. In October of 1895 Grace gave birth in Derbyshire, England to the couple’s last child, a son she named David. By the 1901 census Grace Weir and her family were living with her elderly mother on the Isle of Bute and Grace was working as a school teacher to support her family. Then in 1906 the Weirs all moved to South Africa, where they seem to have settled. Elizabeth married and had children, she died in 1940. Grace died there in 1941. Agnes also married and lived until 1983. Young David, named posthumously after his father, also had a sad end. Serving in the 4th Regiment of the South African Infantry during World War One, he lost his life on the 24 March 1918 in the first Battle of the Somme. He is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

Three lives lost and so many lives altered as a result of that fateful day off the Isle of Muck. The Weirs in particular stand out to me for if David had lived, I suspect they may not have ended up in South Africa, a world away from Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. The dairy and cheese farm, which was doing well, might have become a family tradition with Weir descendants still running it today. And Donald and John, who were both still young men when they died, may have married, had children and done ?? had their lives not been cut short that day.

Stories told and stories untold. Rest In Peace.

Post script:

Thanks to the managers of the Isle of Muck Facebook group who sent us these photos of the monument in the A’Chill (Port Mor) Cemetery on Muck commemorating the tragic 1895 drowning of three men.

We are now able to read the full inscription: “Here lies the remains of David Weir Age 42 ~ 17 Years Farmer of Muck ~John Rae Carmichael Age 28 of Leith ~ Donald McDougall Muck Age 18 ~ Who Were Drowned While Boating Off Horse Ild ~ Aug. 2. 1895”.

This leads us to conclude that all three of their bodies were recovered and laid to rest here, although so far the paper trail has only turned up evidence that John Rae Carmichael was located and buried at the cemetery.