Thatched house in Kilmoluaig
Photograph of a thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990.
Tiree’s thatched houses have immensely thick double walls, around five feet thick and six to seven feet high, filled with sand and rubble known as ‘glutadh’. They were built without mortar and with hip ends as opposed to the more usual gable ends seen on the mainland.
The older houses, pre-1850, were built using un-dressed stones found in the fields and at the shore. Their walls are rougher and the corners rounded. The roof rests on the inner wall, the stones of which are tilted downwards so that rainwater drains away from the rooms inside.
The ground at the back of the house is usually higher than at the front. If built on a slope, they would be slightly dug in at the back to give them greater shelter.
Colour photograph of the Alasdair MacDonald`s thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990.
Alasdair MacDonald`s thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990. (Original in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 2)
Colour photograph of the old terminal at Tiree airport in 1988.
The old terminal at Tiree airport in 1988.
Black and white photograph of exciseman Alexander Stewart.
Painting of exciseman Alexander Stewart, father of Amelia who married Allan MacFadyen, farmer in Scarinish.
Black and white photograph of horse and cart on Gott Bay beach.
Unknown man in a horse-drawn buggy on Gott Bay beach.
Black and white photograph of Tiree Home Guard.
Tiree Home Guard around 1944.
Black and white photograph of Taigh na Buaile, Brock.
Taigh na Buaile, Brock.
Cornaig Post Office
Photograph of the post office at Cornaigmore.
Courtesy of Mr Hector MacPhail
The sub-post office at Cornaigmore was opened in 1896. The GPO brought in a telegraph line in the 1920s and installed a telephone in the nearby school when the Met Office opened a weather station there.
After the death of the postmaster in the mid-1950s, the office moved to Balevullin for some twenty-five years. It was re-opened on the original site in Cornaig in 1972 along with a general store and a popular restaurant called the Cèilidh Café. Two years later, they were all destroyed by fire.
In 1979 the post office was re-opened in Kilmoluaig. The Cornaig buildings were renovated in the 1980s as a single dwelling which for a few years also housed the Gaelic Playgroup. It was bought by the local council in the 1990s and converted into two council houses.
Black and white postcard of Cornaigmore Post Office.
Cornaigmore Post Office, probably between the World Wars.
Black and white photograph of Tiree Association Sports Day in 1929.
Tiree Association Sports Day in 1929. Captain A. N. Kingwill was hired to fly the first plane to the island, bringing with him the day’s newspapers. Short flights on the plane were on offer at 2/6d (12p) a time and Captain Kingwill gave a display of stunt-flying.
Black and white photograph of Tiree Agricultural Show in July 1927.
Prize mare with foal at foot, owned by Donald MacDougall, Ruaig, at Tiree Agricultural Show in July 1927.
Black and white photograph of the old mill at Cornaig.
The old mill at Cornaig.
