Travelling the Archive shares the 1960s heritage of the close community of Kyleakin in the Isle of Skye. A unique collection of Kodachrome 35mm slides taken during this period, now known as the Joan Wilcock Collection, forms a portrait of this community before the bridge to the mainland was built and the famous Skye ferry ceased to operate, changing the geography and the way of life in Kyleakin.
Miss Joan Wilcock (1895-1994) was a frequent visitor to Kyleakin. The earliest photographs of her in the village date from the 1940s, and possibly earlier. Her colour slides cover the period of 1959-1973. A collection of over 400 slides was gifted to the Highland Archive Service in 2008. There are many portraits of Kyleakin people, and perhaps most strikingly, children.
Even though she was a travelling tourist, it became apparent that Miss Wilcock knew the people she photographed. In 2010, when the Kyleakin Local History Society was formed, Kyleakin people saw the images for the first time. Caroline Clouston, Margaret Macrae and Anna Belle Robertson know almost everyone in the pictures.
People either travel to archives literally or virtually, rather than archives physically coming to them. In this project, the collection was taken from the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre in Portree to Kyleakin so as many as people as possible could see the entire collection. This included a slide show: the way Miss Wilcock would have viewed them herself.
Twenty-two of her images have been selected for this guidebook. Join us now for a memory walk around Kyleakin, and meet some of the people Miss Wilcock photographed, and others who have special connections to the people and places in her images.
