Auchindrain, Furnace, Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8XN Tel: +44(0)1499 500235. Scottish Charity Number SC015528 © 2011-12 Auchindrain Trust       Website by SKWebpages Making News More News 26th September 2011 A MOST UNUSUAL REUNION A vintage tractor returned to its former home of Auchindrain - nearly fifty years after it was sold on when the last tenant farmer left the Township. There, the "Little Grey Fergie" as it was known, was reunited with the two men who used it to work the land. Bob Clark, Development Manager at Auchindrain, said, "We knew there had been a tractor at Auchindrain, but not what had happened to it.  With the help of a number of local people, an 8-month search paid off when we tracked it down in retirement in Tarbert.  It is a really exciting and important find for us, because it represents the end of the story of farming that began at Auchindrain two centuries ago.". Two years before he retired in 1963, the last tenant of Auchindrain, the late Eddie MacCallum, bought the third-hand Ferguson TEF 20 to replace the horses that had been used to work the land until then.  When he sold up, the tractor went for auction at the old mart in Lochgilphead - the site now occupied by Jewsons builders merchants - and was bought by Duncan Neil Munro of St Catherine's, who had himself been born at Auchindrain.  It later went on to work elsewhere in Argyll, before going into retirement around 10 years ago. The tractor was delivered to Auchindrain today by well-known local agricultural machinery dealers Hamilton Brothers, who sold it new in 1955 and who will now be moving it for the last time to its final home.  There to welcome it at Auchindrain was Eddie MacCallum - son of the last tenant - and Willie Weir, who as youngsters drove the tractor when it was at Auchindrain between 1961 and 1963. The tractor has been purchased by The Auchindrain Trust with the help of a 50% grant from the National Fund for Acquisitions, a Scottish Government fund administered by the Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland.  Jane Carmichael, Director of Collections at the National Museums Scotland, said "Auchindrain is the obvious home for this tractor.  This is exactly the sort of acquisition which makes a difference to the quality of a local museum collection and which we are pleased to support through the National Fund for Acquisitions.".  This grant was match funded by the Friends of Auchindrain. National Fund for Acquisitions www.nms.ac.uk/making_connections/nationa l_fund_for_acquisitions.aspx match funded by funded by Friends of Auchindrain www.auchindrain.org.uk/friends Eddie cuts the welcome home cake Click on photos to enlarge L to R Gavin Reid (Hamilton Bros), Eddie MacCallum, Willie Weir, Hughie Maclean (retired from Hamilton Brothers)