Black and white photograph of the Coastguard Hut in Balevullin with Mary MacLean and Maggie Richardson.
The Coastguard Hut in Balevullin in the 1930s or 40s. L-R: Sisters Mary and Maggie MacLean of Balevullin with Toby the dog.
Black and white photograph of mounted policeman Neil MacLean of Balevullin.
Mounted policemen Neil MacLean (1893-1961) of Balevullin, father of nurse Flora MacKinnon, taken in Glasgow probably in the 1930s.
Black and white photograph of vet Duncan MacLean of Balevullin.
Duncan MacLean (1904-1958) of Balevullin, the first veterinary in Tiree, taken in 1952.
Black and white photograph of Neil MacLean of Balevullin with two unknown women.
Policemen Neil MacLean (1893-1961) of Balevullin with two unknown women, probably taken in the 1920s.
Black and white photograph of vet Duncan MacLean with a pony and trap taken in the 1930s.
Veterinary Duncan MacLean of Balevullin driving a horse and trap in the 1930s.
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.
Black and white photograph of Duncan, Mary and Willie MacLean of Balevullin in the 1930s.
The Croft, Balevullin in the 1930s. L-R: Veterinary Duncan MacLean (1904-1958); possibly his mother; his sister Mary MacLean with a young goat; Willie MacLean of Balevullin.
Black and white photograph of veterinary Duncan MacLean (1904-1958) of Balevullin.
Veterinary Duncan MacLean (1904-1958) of Balevullin.
Nurse Flora MacLean of Balevullin
Photograph of Nurse Flora MacLean of Balevullin.
Courtesy of Mrs Flora MacKinnon
Flora MacLean of Balevullin was a nurse in Glasgow at the beginning of the 20th century. While working with children in the city she contracted tuberculosis. Her career finished, she left the pollution of the city for the sunshine and fresh air of her native island.
At the back of her thatched house in Balevullin she set up a tent where she lived much of the year. Her house was one of the few on Tiree with a back door which faces west, the direction of the prevailing wind. Most Tiree houses, until recently, have been built ‘back to the wind, face to the sun’.
She died in 1918 and is buried at Soroby. Her niece, Flora MacKinnon, also lives in Balevullin and is one of the island’s district nurses.
Black and white photograph of nurse Flora MacLean of Balevullin.
Nurse Flora MacLean of Balevullin who died in the 1920s, an aunt of nurse Flora MacKinnon of Balevullin.
