Duncan MacKay Collection
Priests House and Catholic Church
1. Part of a double postcard produced in about 1912 showing the new priest’s house and Catholic church in Cleadale. The church was dedicated at a ceremony held on Thursday 15th September 1910 and reported on in detail in the Oban Times on Saturday 17th September. At that stage the house wasn’t finished. A picture which shows the church almost finished with the west end partly in scaffolding is No. D49305 in the Banff Collection.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Cleadale |
| Tags Cleadale |
|
Priests House and Catholic
2. The other half of the same postcard published by the priest who had raised the money for the new buildings, the Rev. McClymont. He had energetically organised fund raising through collections in Glasgow and further afield in London and the U.S.A. It seems that Thomson, the landowner, only paid for some fittings. This picture shows the previous building, Cleadale House, which doubled as a priest’s house upstairs and a place of worship downstairs. The men with the horses and carts seem to be dropping loads of seaweed in piles in front of the house. The best rear view of Cleadale House is in the Chrissie Oliver Collection No. 55.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Cleadale |
School on EIgg
3. The school with a family group sitting outside. The dress could be early 20th century, but the people have not been identified.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | School |
Puffer at Eigg Pier
4. A puffer unloading bricks and shaped stones at the pier for the new Runciman lodge, which was built in 1926. The same scene can be found in the Katie MacLean Collection No. 1. The puffer was The River Cloy.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Eigg Pier |
| Tags Puffer |
|
School
5. Children at play outside the school in 1952. The lad on the right is Norman Jamieson, the factor’s son. A more distant view from the same negative can be found in the Tom Jamieson Collection No. 71.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | School |
Kildonan Harvest
6. A harvest scene at Kildonnan Farm with a horse-drawn binder cutting oats in the 1930s or 1940s. A similar picture also occurs in the Duncan Ferguson Collection, No 53, although the people are a little different. In this one from left to right are Lachlan Campbell (Craigard), Duncan Mackay (Cleadale), Roddy MacIsaac (Laig), but the man on the binder is not recognised. Duncan Ferguson recalls that the little girl is Levinia Graham.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Kildonan |
Gypsy Moth on Laig Beach
7. The famous occasion when the first fixed-wing aircraft landed on Eigg. It was the 1930s, and the De Havilland Gypsy Moth had been hired by Dr Martha Devon, the island doctor, to promote the idea of an air ambulance service for the western isles. It appears to have been a Sunday because the islanders were in their best clothes. (See also the Barbara Barrie Collection Nos. 20,21 & 26 A&B.)
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Laig |
Planting Potatoes
8. A scene of potato planting on a Cleadale croft. Sadly, nobody can identify anyone in the picture now. The women are holding aprons full of potatoes, and two men are holding large forks.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Cleadale |
Oat Harvest at Kildonan
9. A harvest scene at Kildonnan, date unknown. There is freshly-cut oats standing in the foreground.
| Island: | Eigg |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Duncan MacKay Collection |
| Location: | Kildonan |