Rosemary Barry writes:
Peggy Nicholson (nee MacDonald) and her brother Lachlan entertained a packed house when she gave her talk on Lismore place names. With maps illustrating her examples she began at Point and journeyed south to the lighthouse combining explanations of Gaelic names with interesting snippets of information and funny local stories- some involving illicit whisky distilling. Older Liosaich offered anecdotes and additions from their own recollections.
Particularly poignant was the account of the 300 who left from the little bay behind what is now Newfield Terrace to travel to America. Seeing the island as it is today it is good to be reminded of what went before in places that are now so familiar and so different.
Lismore place names Taproot 1.03.2026
Moving down to the south end which was cleared and remains almost entirely uninhabited, they finished with an aerial view of the lighthouse clearly showing what can only be glimpsed from a boat or the land, This was an extremely illuminating session. Who knew that the hard to reach Lochan nam Bo Caola to the west of Loch Fiart meant Lochan of the thin cow? Perhaps they were thin because the water tended to dry up in the summer.