The UHI team are delighted to partner with the Hynish Trust to add stories to the Coast archive. The trust manage and safeguard the Hynish Shore Station on Tiree, a fabulous site from which the iconic Skerryvore Lighthouse was conceived, built and assembled. Over 100 workers were moved into custom-built barracks and the lighthouse was prefabricated at the site assembly station, with stonemasons shaping and checking the blocks fitted together before they were taken by boat to Mackenzie’s rock, the reef that the lighthouse was built on. Later, the shore-based lighthouse keepers and their families stayed in the lighthouse cottages, responsible for monitoring the lighthouse and the wellbeing of those stationed on it from the signal tower.
The trust recently took Hynish Shore Station into community ownership and today these lighthouse cottages, as well as several other buildings on site, provide long-term affordable accommodation for islanders. The old storehouse is a hotel, bar and restaurant (a very good one, as we discovered on our visit there) and the former smithy is an art gallery and learning space. The trust has ambitious plans to convert several other buildings for the benefit of local businesses and community groups, and has secured funding to improve accessibility to this amazing site.
We had a fabulous couple of days there experiencing every weather and talking about local stories. We sat down with John Pirie, a former lighthouse engineer who spent time on Skerryvore, and Dr John Holliday, a local historian and chairman of An Iodhann, Tiree’s Historical Centre, to hear about the history of the site and the experience of visiting it today. As a result we have been able to add six new stories to the Coast map.
We have included a recommended order to follow the stories in for those lucky enough to be discovering the station in person and, a new feature for Coast, immersive 360° photos of some of key buildings and sites for those exploring from their sofa!
Discover the stories by following these links or zooming in on Tiree on the interactive map.
Hynish Shore Station: a beacon of maritime heritage
Arriving at Skerryvore for the first time
Aerial photograph courtesy of John Pirie
