Places of Interest

Everywhere in Tiree is interesting but one or two corners deserve special mention.

Scarinish

In Scarinish is the old harbour of Tiree (the pier built in 1771) used many years ago by the Tiree smacks which carried coal, peat, etc., bringing in essential goods to the island. Some of the older residents remember when the harbour was so full of ships that you could cross over it by walking from smack to smack! It is a small tidal harbour and today is bright with sailing boats while the sad reminder of the splendid days of sail, the “Mary Stewart”, lies disintegrating on the shore.

Heanish

Port a Mhuilinn has the remains of an old dry stone pier built about 150 years ago to encourage the fishing industry.

Kenavara (Ceann a’Mhara)

This magnificent headland with its great cliffs and gills is home for thousands of sea birds. It has three Duns, an ancient chapel ruin and a swallow-hole. The reward for climbing its modest height on a clear blue day is a wonderful experience. Skerryvore’s slim pencil stands silhouetted on the horizon, the islands of the Berra group and South Uist lie like pearls in the ocean while the sweep ofTravee. curving round to Balephuil, washed by opalescent water, must make it one of Tiree’s loveliest and loneliest corners.

Milton

This harbour was recently enlarged and is used by some of the local lobster fishermen.

Cornaig (The Green)

At the west end Cornaig Bay are remains of a pier built many years ago to encourage the fishing industry. Above thc old jetty are a number of old cottages, some in ruins and others splendidly modernised The Croish Farmhouse was originally an inn for the fishermen. East coast fishermen who used this harbour named it “The Green.”

Hynish

The pier and harbour at Hynish were built to enable the transportation of building material for Skerryvore Lighthouse. The Signal Tower Museum, opened by the Hebridean Trust, is well worth a visit as it tells in detail the story of the construction and later history of Skerryvore. Here you will also see the flat roofed houses built for the original lighthouse keepers, the little tenement with its attractive rounded stairway where the seamen were housed and the reservoir for flushing out tile sand from the harbour. It was from Hynish Harbour in the 1840’s and I85O’s that emigrants set sail for a new life in Canada after the division of the crofts and the potato famine.

Happy Valley

If you continue beyond the Lighthouse complex at Hynish and follows the road, you will arrive, after opening and shutting five gates, at Happy Valley, a wild and beautiful place with magnificent coastal scenery giving access to the ancient fort of Dun na Cleite and - if you feel like a coastal walk, to Dun Hiader (although the latter is more easily reach from West Hynish). Here you may see cormorants on the rocks, hanging out their wings to dry.

Old Kelp Factory - Middleton

Across the road from the Glossary Restaurant you will see the walls of the old Kelp Factory used many years ago to produce tangle ash.

Island House

The site on which Island House stands was originally an island and it has been suggested that it may in the distant past have been a crannog, although this is speculation since no evidence remains. What is certain is that a fortified castle existed there in the 11th century and that access to it was by means of a causeway and drawbridge. By the end of the 17th century this castle was a ruin and it was demolished in 1748 when the present Island House was built by the then Duke of Argyle. The channel between house and shore was filled in many years ago. Island House is now the island home of the Duke of Argyle.

Monuments:

The War Memorial by Gott Bay pier.

The Memorial at Baugh to Dr. Alexander Buchanan erected by the Tiree people in grateful acknowledgement of his 51 years service to them.

The Cairn at Kilkenneth erected as a tribute to the endeavours of the Rev. Donald MacCallum, minister of Heylipol Church from 1887-89, on behalf of the crofters, “Like the Biblical prophets he took up the cause of the oppressed and was chief leader of the Land League.”

The Dog Memorial beside the above Cairn. `Here lies good and faithful Clyde’ 1959. Clyde was the faithful companion of Alexander Brown, a retired member of the Glasgow Constabulary who crafted at Kilkenneth.

Crossapol

The cattle auction complex is situated at Crossapol. It is here that regular sales are held, buyers coming in from the mainland to bid for Tiree’s superb lambs. sheep and cattle.

Balephetrish Hill

This is another modest hill but climb it and you are rewarded with a bird’s eye view of Tiree. It has much of interest in the shape of an old fort (now half gone), a small pink marble quarry behind the sheep fank near Balephetrish Farm, an old limestone quarry across the main road at the end of a limestone ridge and the huge gneiss quarry where fulmars soar. This hunk of Balephetrish was removed to make the runways on the Reef during the last war. It is worth mentioning that Tiree played an important part in Coastal Command in the war. Some 4000 Airforce personnel were stationed here and Liberators, Hudsons and Wellingtons flew countless sorties from Tiree. Many of the ugly concrete buildings that mar the natural beauty of the island are relics of this war-time activity.

Ben Hynish

Tiree’s highest hill, once a remote lonely spot. is now occupied by the “golf-ball ”, a radar station for tracking in-coming trans-atlantic flights.

Beaches

It is surely Tiree a many glorious shell-sand beaches that are the main attraction. Nowhere else in thc U.K. can be found such magnificence, such an expanse of sea and sky or such beauty and safe bathing. Gott (Traigh Mhor) with its two mile sweep of sand, Traigh Bhagh with its sand-hills at the eastern end, Soroby and the little bays at Balemartine and Mannal, Traigh Bhi (Travele) curving from Balephuil to Kenavara. Traigh nan Gilean to the north of Kenavara, the magnificent beach behind Kilkenneth backed by huge sand-dunes. Hough Bay with its off-shore Skerries, Balevullin with its little stream. Cornaig with the Green and its old harbour, Balephetrish with its variety of rounded pebbles, Vaul and Salum with the golf-course behind and the more intimate little bays that indent the eastern coast at Caolas. They all have infinite charm and you can select one for each day of your holiday: Cowrie shells can be found between Vaul and the Ringing Stone, whilst a green marble pebble expedition to the stony beaches below Middleton can be very rewarding.

Old Mill, Cornaig

At Cornaig stands the old island mill still with its lade and water-wheel fed from Loch Bhasapol behind. There are many people living today who can remember the mill in action.