Sutherland historians issue plea for help over 'mystery photo'
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Three historians based in the Helmsdale area have issued a plea for help to Northern Times readers.
Local Land League experts Audrey Munro and Esther McDonald along with Jacquie Aitken, heritage officer at Helmsdale’s Timespan Museum and Arts Centre, are trying to identify a number of men in a ‘mystery picture’ thought to date back to the late 1880s.
The image was donated to Timespan by Peter Lawrie, who runs the Glen Discovery website: glendiscovery.com
Mr Lawrie is the great-grandson of Land Leaguer and prominent Liberal politician Joseph MacLeod, the author of Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement.
Audrey, who has researched the life of Land League campaigner Angus Sutherland, MP for Sutherland from 1886-1894 – has been able to identify him in the image.
She said: “We know the gentleman sitting in the front row, second from the left is Angus Sutherland, who became Sutherland's first Land League MP in 1886.
“My best guess is that this is either the Bonar Bridge convention of 1886, or one of the major gatherings in Dingwall, again sometime in the 1880s.
“It could, of course, also be a convention in Wick, or Inverness, or a demonstration in Golspie!"
Hopefully, some readers of the Northern Times, or readers of your sister papers in the Highland News Media group, may recognise their ancestors. Even if we could identify the minister, that would provide a good clue.”
Audrey added that the photographer’s stamp on the back reads ‘J Abbot’.
The first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the Highlands and Islands.
A number of individuals from Sutherland crofting township Gartymore were instrumental in establishing the inaugural branch of the Land League movement.
