Black and white photograph of the Coastguard Hut in Balevullin with Maggie Richardson in the 1930s or 40s.
The Coastguard Hut in Balevullin in the 1930s or 40s. L-R: Teacher Maggie Richardson nee MacLean of Balevullin with unknown man.
Beachcombers on Balevullin beach in the 1960s
Photograph of Ernest Richardson and Mary MacLean beachcombing at Balevullin.
Courtesy of Mrs Flora MacKinnon
Ernest Richardson and his sister-in-law Mary MacLean are pictured here beachcombing at Balevullin in the 1960s. Mary is carrying a basket used for measuring herring. Four of these baskets made one cran.
The unwritten local rules allow everything below the high water mark on the beach to be taken. On an island with no trees, the most valuable find was wood. It was common for skippers to carry an extra deck load of timber to sell on the west coast and this was often lost in storms or gales.
During World War II, goods washed up on Tiree’s shores included boxes of lard from the USA, fruit such as bananas and grapefruit, export cigarettes in tins, bales of coarse crepe rubber and, after the ‘Empress of Britain’ sank off Ireland, five gallon drums of turpentine.
Black and white photograph of Ernest Richardson and Mary MacLean in the 1960s.
Beachcombers on Balevullin beach in the 1960s. L-R: Ernest Richardson and his sister-in-law Mary MacLean.
Maggie MacLean (1907 -1997)
Photograph of Maggie MacLean of Balevullin.
Courtesy of Mrs Flora MacKinnon
Maggie MacLean of Balevullin was the Dux of Oban High School in 1925 and later graduated as a teacher. She taught locally in Ruaig School and then moved to Glasgow where she married Ernest Richardson.
Black and white photograph of siblings Maggie MacLean of Balevullin in the 1910s.
Maggie MacLean (1907-1997) of Balevullin on the day she graduated as a teacher in the late 1920s. Maggie was Dux of Oban High School in 1925, taught in Ruaig School then moved to Glasgow and married Ernest Richardson.