Strontian
Encyclopedia
Strontian is the main village
in Sunart
, an area in western Lochaber
, Highland
, Scotland
, on the A861 road
. It lies on the north shore of Loch Sunart
, close to the head of the loch. In the hills to the north of Strontian lead was mined in the 18th century and in these mines the mineral strontianite
was discovered, from which the element
strontium
was first isolated.
The village name in Gaelic, Sròn
an t-Sìthein, translates as the nose [ie. 'point'] of the fairy hill, meaning a knoll or low round hill inhabited by the mythological sídhe
. The nearby hamlets of Anaheilt
, Bellsgrove, and Upper and Lower Scotstown are now generally considered part of Strontian, with Polloch
several miles away on the terminus of the road to Loch Shiel
. Strontian is the location of Ardnamurchan High School, the local fire station, police station and other facilities.
in the hills the region. A mine was opened in 1725, in partnership with Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk
and General Wade
. Various materials have been mined here including lead, and strontianite, which contains the element named after the village, Strontium
. While there have been inhabitants of the area for centuries, particularly in the woods north of the current village, the community as it exists now was established in 1724 to provide homes for the local mining workers.
Is was observed in the 19th century that there is granite on one side of the Strontian mines and gneiss on the other. The glen north of the village is situated within the Moine Supergroup
. The Glenfinnan Group lies on the west side of the glen, with Caledonian intrusions on the east side.
Lead mined at Strontian was used in bullets manufactured for the Napoleonic Wars. In the early part of the 19th century, part of the workforce was made up of captured forces from Napoleon's imperial army.
, a physician, recognised that the Strontian ores exhibited different properties to those normally seen with other "heavy spars" sources. He concluded "... it is probable indeed, that the scotch mineral is a new species of earth which has not hitherto been sufficiently examined". The new mineral was named strontites in 1793 by Thomas Charles Hope
, a professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow. He confirmed the earlier work of Crawford and recounted: " ... Considering it a peculiar earth I thought it necessary to give it an name. I have called it Strontites, from the place it was found; a mode of derivation in my opinion, fully as proper as any quality it may possess, which is the present fashion". The element was eventually isolated by Sir Humphry Davy
in 1808 by the electrolysis
of a mixture containing strontium chloride
and mercuric oxide, and announced by him in a lecture to the Royal Society on 30 June 1808. In keeping with the naming of the other alkaline earths, he changed the name to strontium.
The first large scale application of strontium was in the production of sugar from sugar beet
. Although a crystallisation process using strontium hydroxide was patented by Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut
in 1849 the large scale introduction came with the improvement of the process in the early 1870s. The German sugar industry used the process well into the 19th century. Prior to World War I
the beet sugar industry used 100,000 to 150,000 tons of strontium hydroxide for this process per year.
A number of complaints had previously been made to Sir James Riddell, local landowner and proprietor of the mines. One piece of evidence presented to the inquest notes, "This insufficiency arises from the want of proper props in the workings & in the removal by Mr Barrat of the Middlings or partitions left by the former Company for supporting the workings - a feeling of this nature given expression to by almost all the workmen has existed for the last three years and a number of men left the work altogether in consequence, as they said, of the insecurity of the Mines - I knew this myself but I had either to submit to work there or starve - Necessity with me had no law - The other mines in which I had wrought are worked in a different, safer, principle & more attention paid to the security of the lives of the workmen." It was noted elsewhere that because the miners were paid for piece-work, no one was able or employed to undertake safety procedures in the mines.
In 1854, miners attempted to bring a case against the mining company, with many of those who presented evidence at the 1851 inquest involved in the action. The legal action failed and was ruled out of order by the sheriff substitute, with 4 pounds 15 shillings in court costs.
grid reference ) is a part of the ancient Sunart Oakwood and is situated between the village of Strontian and the former lead mine sites. It contains remains from earlier settlements in the Strontian area, including charcoal platforms, pony tracks, enclosure dykes, potato runrigs
, and old coppice trees. The wood is a remnant of ancient oakwood that once spanned the Atlantic coasts of Europe from Norway to Portugal. It is a temperate rainforest.
From 1752, the wood was a source of charcoal for the Bonawe
iron furnace on Loch Etive
and locally in the lead mining industry. Managing the woodland brought about a thousand workers to the area. Lead mining fell off in the early 19th Century and the Bonawe Furnace closed in 1876. After this the woods were no longer needed to supply fuel, but were used as a sheltered area for livestock. In 1961, Ariundle Wood was designated a Nature Reserve.
The main path through the nature reserve is the start of the most accessible route to Sgùrr Dhòmhnuill
, a Corbett and the 17th highest relative peak in Britain.
, one of 32 "Parliamentary Churches" he designed for the Highlands and Islands. The government set up a commission in 1823 under John Rickman
to build churches in some of the most thinly populated parishes. The project was funded by a grant of £50,000 and meant to include a manse with each church - each church and manse to cost not more than £1,500. Telford decided that it would be most economical to build all the buildings to the same plan. The layout of each church was a simple T-plan. There were two doors and windows in the front wall, which measured 52' 6". One gable had a belfry of four plain pillars supporting a pyramidal top. The bell rope came down the outside of the gable. At each side of the building there were two windows. The exterior and interior were undecorated. There was a hexagonal pulpit against the inside front wall.
The church is still in use today. The Old Manse, former Church of Scotland Manse, was built to a standard H-plan by Telford in 1827. It is a category C(S) listed building and is today a private residence which also houses the Sunart Archives.
Following the Disruption of 1843
in which the Church of Scotland Free (later the Free Church of Scotland) walked out of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, a congregation of 500 members around Strontian petitioned Sir James Riddell
, who then owned the entirety of Ardnamurchan, for land and permission to build a new church. A number of attendants affirmed, in testimony to the Select Committee on Sites for Churches, illnesses contracted by worshippers attending services held outdoors in inclement weather. A letter by Riddell to Graham Speirs, Esq., notes "I find it impossible, conscientiously, to grant sites for churches, manses, and schools, which would imply a sanction on my part, and give a perpetuity on my estates, to a system which I believe to be anti-social and anti-Christian."
With permission refused, subscriptions were taken from the local congregants of £1400 to have a suitable craft built in Clyde. A floating church was established 150 meters offshore in Loch Sunart
in 1846. Eventually a site was obtained in nearby Acharacle and a Free Church was built there in 1868.
in his descriptive letters to Sir Walter Scott during the 1820s, Strontian is described as "a wild and uninteresting country, though there is some grandeur in one scene, in a deep valley which is terminated by the fine form of Scuir Donald
... Strontian possesses now an excellent inn."
An 1830 source describes it: "The village of Strontian is very pleasantly situated, directly at the head of Loch Sunart, the hills adjoining to which are crowned with beautiful and very thriving plantations. The Loch itself is here extremely picturesque ... [i]n a neighbourhood civilized and populous it would speedily become a favourite retreat."
In the 1830s, residents from Strontian and the surrounding area were among the first to use the "Bounty Scheme" to emigrate to Australia. The Brilliant, a Canadian-built ship, sailed from Tobermory to New South Wales in 1837 with 322 passengers, 105 of whom were from Ardnamurchan and Strontian. The Bounty Scheme, which ran from 1835 to 1841, was proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield
as a way for Australian settlers to subsidise the emigration of skilled tradespeople from Britain.
In the 1850s more emigrants left from the Strontian and Anaheilt area. The Allison sailed from Liverpool in 1851 for Melbourne with a number of Highlanders from the area aboard.
In 1968, Strontian was listed among 2000 "moribund" Highland villages and selected to receive government funding for regeneration. This resulted in the shopping centre, cafe, and information kiosk which are located in the centre of the village.
In 2002 a high school was built in Strontian to serve secondary students of the Ardnamurchan
peninsula. Previously local students had to travel to Fort William
, Mallaig
, or Tobermory for high school, often staying in hostel accommodation and making journeys of up to 4 hours round-trip.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Sunart
Sunart
Sunart is a rural district and community in the south west of Lochaber in Highland, Scotland, on the shores of Loch Sunart, and part of the civil parish of Ardnamurchan...
, an area in western Lochaber
Lochaber
District of Lochaber 1975 to 1996Highland council area shown as one of the council areas of ScotlandLochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region...
, Highland
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, on the A861 road
A861 road
The A861 road is a circuitous, primarily coastal, road in Highland, Scotland.The A861 serves the communities of the remote Ardgour, Sunart, Moidart and Ardnamurchan areas Although the ends of this road are only fourteen miles apart its total length is seventy miles.Route *junction with the A830...
. It lies on the north shore of Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Sunart runs west from the sea, bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morvern district. An inlet from Loch Sunart, Loch Teacuis, runs south-easterly into Morvern.At it is the longest sea...
, close to the head of the loch. In the hills to the north of Strontian lead was mined in the 18th century and in these mines the mineral strontianite
Strontianite
Strontianite is an important raw material for the extraction of strontium. It is a rare carbonate mineral and one of only a few strontium minerals...
was discovered, from which the element
Chemical element
A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
strontium
Strontium
Strontium is a chemical element with the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when exposed to air. It occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and...
was first isolated.
The village name in Gaelic, Sròn
Sròn
Sròn is the Scottish Gaelic word for nose and is the name of some hills in the Scottish Highlands. Before the abolition of the acute accent in Scottish Gaelic, it was sometimes spelt as srón...
an t-Sìthein, translates as the nose [ie. 'point'] of the fairy hill, meaning a knoll or low round hill inhabited by the mythological sídhe
Sídhe
The aos sí are a supernatural race in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology are comparable to the fairies or elves. They are said to live underground in the fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans...
. The nearby hamlets of Anaheilt
Anaheilt
Anaheilt is a village in, 1 mile north of Strontian, located in Acharacle, Lochaber, Argyll, Scotland, within the Scottish council area of Highland....
, Bellsgrove, and Upper and Lower Scotstown are now generally considered part of Strontian, with Polloch
Polloch
Polloch is a remote hamlet, located at the north shore of the River Polloch, in an inlet that flows into Loch Shiel, in Inverness-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland....
several miles away on the terminus of the road to Loch Shiel
Loch Shiel
Loch Shiel is a 19.3 km2 freshwater loch, 120 m deep, situated 20 km west of Fort William in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland...
. Strontian is the location of Ardnamurchan High School, the local fire station, police station and other facilities.
Mining History
The history of mining in the Strontian area dates to 1722, when Sir Alexander Murray discovered galenaGalena
Galena is the natural mineral form of lead sulfide. It is the most important lead ore mineral.Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms...
in the hills the region. A mine was opened in 1725, in partnership with Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal was the son of Lord Thomas Howard and Mary Elizabeth Savile. Upon his uncle's death, he gained the title of 17th Baron Furnivall and 8th Duke of Norfolk...
and General Wade
George Wade
Field Marshal George Wade served as a British military commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.-Early career:Wade, born in Kilavally, Westmeath in Ireland, was commissioned into the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1690 and served in Flanders in 1692, during the Nine Years War, earning a...
. Various materials have been mined here including lead, and strontianite, which contains the element named after the village, Strontium
Strontium
Strontium is a chemical element with the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when exposed to air. It occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and...
. While there have been inhabitants of the area for centuries, particularly in the woods north of the current village, the community as it exists now was established in 1724 to provide homes for the local mining workers.
Is was observed in the 19th century that there is granite on one side of the Strontian mines and gneiss on the other. The glen north of the village is situated within the Moine Supergroup
Moine Supergroup
The Moine Supergroup is a sequence of Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks that form the dominant outcrop of the Scottish Highlands between the Moine Thrust Belt to the northwest and the Great Glen Fault to the southeast. The sequence is metasedimentary in nature and was metamorphosed and deformed in a...
. The Glenfinnan Group lies on the west side of the glen, with Caledonian intrusions on the east side.
Lead mined at Strontian was used in bullets manufactured for the Napoleonic Wars. In the early part of the 19th century, part of the workforce was made up of captured forces from Napoleon's imperial army.
Discovery of Strontium
In 1790, Adair CrawfordAdair Crawford
Adair Crawford FRS , a chemist and physician, was a pioneer in the development of calorimetric methods for measuring the specific heat capacity of substances and the heat of chemical reactions...
, a physician, recognised that the Strontian ores exhibited different properties to those normally seen with other "heavy spars" sources. He concluded "... it is probable indeed, that the scotch mineral is a new species of earth which has not hitherto been sufficiently examined". The new mineral was named strontites in 1793 by Thomas Charles Hope
Thomas Charles Hope
Thomas Charles Hope was a Scottish physician and chemist. He discovered the element strontium, and gave his name to Hope's Experiment, which shows that water reaches its maximum density at 4°C....
, a professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow. He confirmed the earlier work of Crawford and recounted: " ... Considering it a peculiar earth I thought it necessary to give it an name. I have called it Strontites, from the place it was found; a mode of derivation in my opinion, fully as proper as any quality it may possess, which is the present fashion". The element was eventually isolated by Sir Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine...
in 1808 by the electrolysis
Electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...
of a mixture containing strontium chloride
Strontium chloride
Strontium chloride is a salt of strontium and chloride. It is a typical salt, forming neutral aqueous solutions. Like all compounds of Sr, this salt emits a bright red colour in a flame; in fact is used as a source of redness in fireworks...
and mercuric oxide, and announced by him in a lecture to the Royal Society on 30 June 1808. In keeping with the naming of the other alkaline earths, he changed the name to strontium.
The first large scale application of strontium was in the production of sugar from sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
. Although a crystallisation process using strontium hydroxide was patented by Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut
Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut
Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut was a French chemist.Mutarotation was discovered by Dubrunfaut in 1846, when he noticed that the specific rotation of aqueous sugar solution changes with time. The organic fructose molecule was first discovered by Dubrunfaut in 1847.-Works:* Art de fabriquer le sucre de...
in 1849 the large scale introduction came with the improvement of the process in the early 1870s. The German sugar industry used the process well into the 19th century. Prior to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the beet sugar industry used 100,000 to 150,000 tons of strontium hydroxide for this process per year.
Conditions for Workers
In 1851, a miner named Duncan Cameron was killed by a rock-fall in the lead mine. A lengthy inquest followed for the office of the Procurator Fiscal of Tobermory. A number of witnesses to the accident testified that the workings were unsafe and that precautions for the workmen were insufficient. A case was brought against James Floyd, superintendent of the mines, for the culpable homicide of Duncan Cameron.A number of complaints had previously been made to Sir James Riddell, local landowner and proprietor of the mines. One piece of evidence presented to the inquest notes, "This insufficiency arises from the want of proper props in the workings & in the removal by Mr Barrat of the Middlings or partitions left by the former Company for supporting the workings - a feeling of this nature given expression to by almost all the workmen has existed for the last three years and a number of men left the work altogether in consequence, as they said, of the insecurity of the Mines - I knew this myself but I had either to submit to work there or starve - Necessity with me had no law - The other mines in which I had wrought are worked in a different, safer, principle & more attention paid to the security of the lives of the workmen." It was noted elsewhere that because the miners were paid for piece-work, no one was able or employed to undertake safety procedures in the mines.
In 1854, miners attempted to bring a case against the mining company, with many of those who presented evidence at the 1851 inquest involved in the action. The legal action failed and was ruled out of order by the sheriff substitute, with 4 pounds 15 shillings in court costs.
Ariundle Oakwood
Ariundle, Gaelic Airigh Fhionndail, or "the shieling of the white meadow" (OSOrdnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
grid reference ) is a part of the ancient Sunart Oakwood and is situated between the village of Strontian and the former lead mine sites. It contains remains from earlier settlements in the Strontian area, including charcoal platforms, pony tracks, enclosure dykes, potato runrigs
Run rig
Run rig, or runrig, was a system of land occupation practised in northern and western Great Britain, especially Scotland. The name refers to the ridge and furrow pattern characteristic of this system , with alternating "runs" and "rigs" . The system continued in use into the 20th century in the...
, and old coppice trees. The wood is a remnant of ancient oakwood that once spanned the Atlantic coasts of Europe from Norway to Portugal. It is a temperate rainforest.
From 1752, the wood was a source of charcoal for the Bonawe
Bonawe
Bonawe is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland opposite Taynuilt on the north shore of Loch Etive, most famous for Bonawe Quarry . Bonawe is primarily a linear settlement along on the B845 road and the coast.-Etymology:...
iron furnace on Loch Etive
Loch Etive
Loch Etive is a 30 km sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It reaches the sea at Connel, 5 km north of Oban. It measures 31.6 km in length and from 1.2 km to in width...
and locally in the lead mining industry. Managing the woodland brought about a thousand workers to the area. Lead mining fell off in the early 19th Century and the Bonawe Furnace closed in 1876. After this the woods were no longer needed to supply fuel, but were used as a sheltered area for livestock. In 1961, Ariundle Wood was designated a Nature Reserve.
The main path through the nature reserve is the start of the most accessible route to Sgùrr Dhòmhnuill
Sgurr Dhomhnuill
Sgurr Dhòmhnuill or Sgurr Dhòmhnaill is a mountain in western Scotland. The summit lies about north-east of Strontian. Although less than Munro-height, it is one of Britain's biggest mountains in terms of relative height, since it is the highest peak on the Ardgour peninsula....
, a Corbett and the 17th highest relative peak in Britain.
Telford Parliamentary Church (Church of Scotland)
The village church was built in the 1820s by Thomas TelfordThomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
, one of 32 "Parliamentary Churches" he designed for the Highlands and Islands. The government set up a commission in 1823 under John Rickman
John Rickman
John Rickman was an English government official and statistician of the early nineteenth century.He was born in Newburn, Northumberland, son of the Rev Thomas Rickman and educated at Guildford Grammar School, Magdalen Hall, Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford...
to build churches in some of the most thinly populated parishes. The project was funded by a grant of £50,000 and meant to include a manse with each church - each church and manse to cost not more than £1,500. Telford decided that it would be most economical to build all the buildings to the same plan. The layout of each church was a simple T-plan. There were two doors and windows in the front wall, which measured 52' 6". One gable had a belfry of four plain pillars supporting a pyramidal top. The bell rope came down the outside of the gable. At each side of the building there were two windows. The exterior and interior were undecorated. There was a hexagonal pulpit against the inside front wall.
The church is still in use today. The Old Manse, former Church of Scotland Manse, was built to a standard H-plan by Telford in 1827. It is a category C(S) listed building and is today a private residence which also houses the Sunart Archives.
Floating Free Church
Strontian was the site of reputedly the first moored boat church in the country.Following the Disruption of 1843
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843 was a schism within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland...
in which the Church of Scotland Free (later the Free Church of Scotland) walked out of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, a congregation of 500 members around Strontian petitioned Sir James Riddell
Riddell Baronets
There have been three Baronetcies created for people with the surname Riddell, one in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, one in the Baronetage of Great Britain and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom....
, who then owned the entirety of Ardnamurchan, for land and permission to build a new church. A number of attendants affirmed, in testimony to the Select Committee on Sites for Churches, illnesses contracted by worshippers attending services held outdoors in inclement weather. A letter by Riddell to Graham Speirs, Esq., notes "I find it impossible, conscientiously, to grant sites for churches, manses, and schools, which would imply a sanction on my part, and give a perpetuity on my estates, to a system which I believe to be anti-social and anti-Christian."
With permission refused, subscriptions were taken from the local congregants of £1400 to have a suitable craft built in Clyde. A floating church was established 150 meters offshore in Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Sunart runs west from the sea, bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morvern district. An inlet from Loch Sunart, Loch Teacuis, runs south-easterly into Morvern.At it is the longest sea...
in 1846. Eventually a site was obtained in nearby Acharacle and a Free Church was built there in 1868.
19th Century
According to John MacCullochJohn MacCulloch
John MacCulloch FRS was a Scottish geologist.-Biography:MacCulloch, descended from the MacCullochs of Nether Ardwell in Galloway, was born in Guernsey, his mother being a native of that island. Having displayed remarkable powers as a boy, he was sent to study medicine in the university of...
in his descriptive letters to Sir Walter Scott during the 1820s, Strontian is described as "a wild and uninteresting country, though there is some grandeur in one scene, in a deep valley which is terminated by the fine form of Scuir Donald
Sgurr Dhomhnuill
Sgurr Dhòmhnuill or Sgurr Dhòmhnaill is a mountain in western Scotland. The summit lies about north-east of Strontian. Although less than Munro-height, it is one of Britain's biggest mountains in terms of relative height, since it is the highest peak on the Ardgour peninsula....
... Strontian possesses now an excellent inn."
An 1830 source describes it: "The village of Strontian is very pleasantly situated, directly at the head of Loch Sunart, the hills adjoining to which are crowned with beautiful and very thriving plantations. The Loch itself is here extremely picturesque ... [i]n a neighbourhood civilized and populous it would speedily become a favourite retreat."
In the 1830s, residents from Strontian and the surrounding area were among the first to use the "Bounty Scheme" to emigrate to Australia. The Brilliant, a Canadian-built ship, sailed from Tobermory to New South Wales in 1837 with 322 passengers, 105 of whom were from Ardnamurchan and Strontian. The Bounty Scheme, which ran from 1835 to 1841, was proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonisation of South Australia, and later New Zealand....
as a way for Australian settlers to subsidise the emigration of skilled tradespeople from Britain.
In the 1850s more emigrants left from the Strontian and Anaheilt area. The Allison sailed from Liverpool in 1851 for Melbourne with a number of Highlanders from the area aboard.
Strontian Today
The 19th century inn was destroyed by fire in 1999. A hotel was later opened in an existing building in the village.In 1968, Strontian was listed among 2000 "moribund" Highland villages and selected to receive government funding for regeneration. This resulted in the shopping centre, cafe, and information kiosk which are located in the centre of the village.
In 2002 a high school was built in Strontian to serve secondary students of the Ardnamurchan
Ardnamurchan
Ardnamurchan is a peninsula in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, noted for being very unspoilt and undisturbed. Its remoteness is accentuated by the main access route being a single track road for much of its length.-Geography:...
peninsula. Previously local students had to travel to Fort William
Fort William, Scotland
Fort William is the second largest settlement in the highlands of Scotland and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger.Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the north and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles...
, Mallaig
Mallaig
Mallaig ; is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line , completed in 1901, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road – the "Road to the Isles".The village of Mallaig...
, or Tobermory for high school, often staying in hostel accommodation and making journeys of up to 4 hours round-trip.