History of Aros Park
Tobermory Isle of Mull

Into the Twentieth Century
Looking through Alexander Allan’s game book, the seasons’ shootings were Grouse, Black-game, Partridge, Woodcock, Snipe, Mallard, Widgeon, Teal, Hares, Rabbits, Red Deer, and Roe Deer, the last recorded Roe Deer being shot in 1909.
He died in 1927, and his son Bryce inherited. Bryce had been to Gallipoli as a Major in command of the Ross Mountain Battery in 1915, and was at the landing on Cape Helles.  He met with an accident which sent him home for a time, but he then went out to France, as a Colonel in the R.F.A., and later on into Germany.  He was mentioned in dispatches, was given the T.D., the 1915 Star, the War Medal, the Victory Medal, the O.B.E. (military division), and the Croix de Guerre.  ‘Colonel Bryce’ married twice, his first wife was his cousin Hilda; she did not like Mull so she lived in Edinburgh.  However Bryce did remarry, a lady called Margaret and she did live with him in Aros House.  Madge as she was known had a great love for animals, and horses in particular, and was also a very generous lady.  When Bryce died, Alastair (Sandy) who was Bryce and Madge’s only son took over running the estate.
 Alastair was born in 1902, and went to Osborne Naval College, where he contracted rheumatic fever.  Later he travelled the world as a merchant seaman.  He became a Chartered Accountant, and married  Anne Sutherland in 1934.  He was in the RNVR during the war.  None of his three daughters was born at Aros; Susan was born in 1936 in Dumfries, Margaret in 1939, and Jane in 1941 at the Western Isles Hotel in Tobermory, Mull. Alastair, who died in 1982, was a man much loved by all.
 After the Second World War it became increasingly difficult for Alastair to maintain the estate – large houses became very expensive to run, labour was much more costly, and the property became an ever-increasing burden.  In the end, the decision was taken to sell the estate.