Ferries Lochboisdale: Due to MV Lord of the Isles annual overhaul, MV Isle of Mull operates the combined Castlebay and Lochboisdale service to/from Oban, not Mallaig. · Berneray: Due to planned vessel maintenance, there is no service operating on the following dates: Sunday 13 December. · Eriskay: Following a review of vessel deployment, MV Loch Riddon will now operate the Sound of Barra route during MV Loch Alainn’s annual overhaul.8° drizzle  wind W18mphSunrise 08:08Today on Uist →
← All stories

Fact · Grimsay

One Grimsay family built a thousand boats

One Grimsay family built a thousand boats
Photo Robert W Watt, CC BY-SA 2.0

Three generations of the Stewart family built as many as a thousand boats from three sheds on Grimsay. The island's boatshed at Kallin still employs a full-time boatbuilder to keep the skills alive.

Grimsay's harbour at Kallin is the base for a shellfish industry that sends lobster, prawns and scallops off the islands. It was also home to one of the great small-boat yards of the Hebrides: three generations of Stewarts built up to a thousand boats from three sheds on the island. The Boatshed at Kallin, a marine repair facility, now keeps the traditional skills going with a full-time boatbuilder and a trainee, and restored the last mailboat of the Monach Isles. The island's neighbour Ronay, a mile to the east, was inhabited until 1931.

Sources / notes: Wikipedia: Grimsay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsay Wikipedia: Ronay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronay

More stories