Life in Kyleakin in the 1950s and 1960s

Living in Kyleakin during the fifties and sixties in some respects was very different to living here today. At that time there were nine shops in the village, five of which were on the pier. Camerons sold groceries and draperies, the White Heather Cafe had a wee shop with ice cream, lemonade, biscuits and cigarettes, and there was a butcher’s shop for meat. MacRae’s Grocery shop and newsagents sat next to the Heathmont hotel. Next door, there was the village post office. For paint, fishing gear and ironmongery, there was Johnny Uisdean’s shop. You’d find clothing and tweeds at the Deerstalkers as and there was Monty the Tailor’s shop and Macdiarmid’s Skye Tartan Shop at the head of the pier.

Lamont’s shop sold drapery and sweets beside the primary school. Where Olaf Road is now, there was a dairy. The cows were milked in the byre and the milk delivered by Mr Soper.

In the 60s, a filling station and shop were built at the top of Kyle House Brae.

There was no need for a fish shop – Kyleakin itself was a fishing village. It produced a good variety of fish which was sold to the vans and then delivered to the local people. The fishermen were also very generous with their catch. When the boats would come in on a Friday night, the men would place two large boxes of herring on the pier for the community to help themselves to as much as they wished.

As told by Ian Sikorski, resident of Kyleakin

More information on visiting the area can be found here.