The Kintyre Forum

Some of you might have seen the Down Memory Lane article in the 2nd April edition of the Campbeltown Courier. It explained how a journal belonging to Malcolm Currie of Cleongart is going to be brought back to Kintyre this spring - about 250 years after it was first written.

The finder, Dr Burton Schaber, will be visiting on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd May, and we are organising a small gathering for all those interested in seeing the journal. It will be held at:

Glenbarr Village Hall
2pm to 4pm
Saturday 22nd May

The Watering Can Coffee Shop in Glenbarr will, for a small charge, provide tea, coffee and home baking for those attending.

Any of Malcolm's descendants are welcome to join us, together with anyone with an interest in local history.

So that we can organise catering, can you let me know if you plan to be there? My email address is sarah.galbraith@btconnect.com.

Sadie Galbraith (formerly of Langholm, Southend)

[Note - this message, together with a reply giving more information about the Currie families, is also in the genealogy section of the forum.]

I am pleased to know some pest like this. I am graduate of Journalism and I want to attend the said event with the grace of God. I might need the information for my improvement.

Final message about this event: we now have between 20 and 30 people planning to come along to Glenbarr Hall this Saturday, 22nd May from 1400 to 1600 to see this diary. There is still room for more, so if you'd like to come along, drop me an email at sarah.galbraith@btconnect.com.

I'd like to thank those people, a total number somewhere between 40 and 50, who came along to Glenbarr on Saturday to meet Dr Burton Schaber and to see the journal of Malcolm Currie. I'd also like to express my thanks to Margaret Littleson for allowing us to use the Hall for our gathering, and to Alex MacKinnon who invited Dr Schaber to visit Cleongart, the farm where much of the diary was written.

Burt Schaber was delighted and touched to meet so many descendants of Malcolm Currie, and so many local people with an interest in the history of the area.

Burt's transcriptions of the diary are now with a couple of local historians, who are preparing a fuller transcription, which we hope to deposit in the local archives, library etc.

There is likely to be an article in the Courier this weekend, and I've also been contacted by the Sunday Post, who spotted the story in a Canadian paper. (See http://www.bclocalnews.com/community/94759864.html) The Sunday Post may also have a short story about the diary and its return to Kintyre.

Particular thanks must go to Peter Sinclair and his staff at Glenbarr. Not only did Peter organise tea and coffee in the Hall, but he also played the accordion and made sure that as many people as possible were encouraged to attend.

The final thanks must go to Dr Schaber, who travelled half-way around the world to return the journal of Malcolm Currie to the area where it was written - 250 years ago.