Photograph of Christina MacNeill with her son Malcolm MacLean.
Courtesy of Mr Iain MacKinnon
Christina MacNeill is pictured here sitting at her spinning wheel. Standing behind her is her son Malcolm MacLean. Known as ‘Calum Salum’, he was a keen piper all his life and would play for dances in Salum and from the rocks at the shore to the seals.
Among his many activities, Calum ran a shop and a boarding house in Salum, the latter with help of his step-father Lachie MacNeill. He also ran two cars in what became a very busy taxi service for the east end of the island.
For many years he served as the District Councillor for Tiree. He was well-known for his beautiful handwriting and his stories which entertained visitors and locals alike.
Black and white photograph of Calum Salum and his mother, Christina MacNeill.
Malcolm MacLean (Calum Salum) with his bagpipes and his mother Christina MacNeill (Ciorstaidh Mhunn) with carding combs and a spinning wheel.
Photograph of John Lachie MacInnes’ thatched house in Salum.
Courtesy of Mr Alan Boyd
J. Morton Boyd photographed John Lachie MacInnes’ house in Salum in the 1960s. This was the last house in Tiree to have its thatch held down by sìoman-ruadh or coir rope. Straw rope was used until the mid-19th century; nowadays chicken wire or plastic netting is used instead.
Tiree houses were made as far as possible from local materials – stone, lime, clay, straw rope and the thatch. Only glass and wood for the roof timbers, doors and windows were imported. They look utterly immovable but nothing could be further from the truth.
Islanders moved around a great deal, either by choice or because the factor gave them no option. The thatch had to be discarded but the turfs and roof timbers were taken down and put into the back of a cart and the stones moved on sledges, load by load, to the new site.
Colour photograph of John Lachie MacInnes`s house in Salum.
John Lachie MacInnes`s house in Salum photographed by Morton Boyd in the 1940s or 1950s.
Map of Vaul, Salum, Caoles, Milton, Brock, Ruaig and Kirkapol showing contour lines, roads and paths, boundaries, townships and buildings, bridges and cattle grids, rivers and drains, sites of antiquities, vegetation and rock features.
