To Donald McKelvie, MBE

DONALD o' tattie fame
- 'Health to McKelvie!'
Long shall we praise his name
Whilst Arranmen delve ye.
'Arran Chief,' 'Arran Rose,'
'Comrade' and 'Ally,'
Yea where the 'consul' grows-
'Health to McKelvie!'

James Nicol A Book of Arran Verse (1930). A poem on the occasion of a celebratory dinner in his honour at the Douglas Hotel, Brodick, November 1925.

By the end of the 18th century the potato, or 'tattie', had become established in Scotland, thriving in the good Arran soil combined with the warmth from the Gulf stream and the island's plentiful supply of rain.

It quickly became an important agricultural crop and a staple part of the diet in traditional dishes such as stovies, tattie soup, tattie scones and tatties and herring. But it was the Lamlash shopkeeper, Donald McKelvie, who made Arran potatoes famous. McKelvie was given some seed potatoes in 1901 from a friend and his first variety, Arran Chief, appeared in 1911. He continued to breed potatoes for the rest of his life, becoming one of the best known breeders of his day. Though many of his varieties have been superseded, there is still an interest among breeders in the McKelvie varieties.

Arran Pilot appears in the New Oxford Book of Plants (OUP 1997), while the purple skinned Arran Victory is also still popular with specialist breeders. One of the most popular modern varieties, Maris Piper, was bred from McKelvie's Arran Cairn. On Arran, potatoes continue to be grown for domestic use in plots of land or 'potato patches' adjoining houses where Arranachs continue to grow a year's supply for the family. Kirkend Nursery at Whiting Bay also grow some potatoes and a few growers sell their potatoes to island shops where they are usually labelled with a local tag.