Printout of webpage about emergency wireless telegraphy services to the Hebrides in the 1920s.
Account by David D Murdoch of working in Tiree with the Wireless Telegraphy Section of the British Post Office in the 1920s.
1998.258.1
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Tag Archives: post offices and postmen
1998.262.1
Post Office Telephones Exchange Diary 25/9/1948 to 16/2/1974, which hung in the Tiree cable hut at Caoles. The cable hut was where the submarine cable from Mull connected to the Tiree exchange (via Coll).
Click here to view extract
One of the first and longest serving telephone engineers was Donald Quintin Campbell, whose signature appears next to most entries in the diary during 1948-1968.
1999.168.3
Two postmen in the late 19th century
Photograph of two postmen in the late 19th century.
Courtesy of Mr Alasdair Sinclair
This photograph taken the late 19th century shows two unknown postmen from the east end of Tiree. In the 1880s the first internal posts were delivered on foot from the main post office in Scarinish to Middleton, Island House and Gott.
In the 1890s these three foot posts were upgraded to horse posts and a further four horse posts were established from Scarinish to Balemartine, Cornaig and Ruaig and from Crossapol to Kenovay. The foot posts were extended to Vaul, Hough and Odhrasgair and in 1906 to Hynish and Caoles.
After World War II the network of foot and horse posts were gradually replaced with the familiar red post vans.
Black and white photograph of two east end postmen.
Two unknown postmen from the east end of Tiree, possibly Brock, taken in the late 19th century.
1999.111.7
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.
1998.107.7
Black and white photograph of a postman at the Lodge.
Postman delivering letters to the Lodge, probably taken in the 1890s or early 1900s.
2003.33.2
Black and white photograph of Hugh Lamont of Ruaig Post Office.
L-R: Hugh Lamont of Ruaig Post Office with an unknown man, probably taken between WWI and WWII.
1999.233.9
Black and white postcard of Scarinish Store and Post Office.
Postcard of Scarinish Store and Post Office in the early 20th century.
2000.26.6
Black and white photograph of postman Lachie MacPhail in the 1930s.
Postman Lachie MacPhail (Lachlan Iain) from Clachan, Cornaigmore on the horse and cart he used to deliver the mail in the 1930s.
2000.26.9
Black and white postcard of Cornaigmore Post Office.
Cornaigmore Post Office in the 1920s or 1930s.
2003.10.33
Scanned document giving the history of telegraphic communications to Cornaig Sub-post Office 1924-1935.
History of telecommunications to Cornaig Sub-post Office as affecting the Met Station from 1924-1935.