51923: Buth Dhomhnull a Gharraidh

After the First World War, Donald Macleod, 1 Garyvard set up a shoemaking business on the croft, after having served his time as a shoemaker in Stornoway. This soon became a gathering place (‘taigh ceilidh’) for the local youth, as well as those not so young. Card games were a common part of the evening’s entertainment with ‘Catch the Ten’ being a favourite. Donald soon expanded and started to trade in other commodities and eventually built a shop to sell general stores.

The shop was at its busiest in the 1940s when people came for their weekly rations and although the shop was only a 12ft x 8ft shed, it included a butchery section Health & Safety standards were not an issue in those days with meat, flour, cheese, salt, herring, kippers, boots, shoes, oilcake and fluke pills all being dispensed from this small shed and it wasn’t unknown for the assistant to cast aside his manure creel to go and serve a customer in the shop.