Blacksmith workshop - Pennycraig

Three phone pictures of John Calderwood's old blacksmith workshop by the road at Pennycraig, 2kms north of Bowmore.

Ruined buildings on Islay

There are far fewer ruined buildings on Islay today than there were fifteen years ago.  The majority have now been renovated and are full of happy holidaymakers for at least part of the year.  The old blacksmiths workshop near Springbank is an exception however.  It is still rather forlornly waiting for somebody to evict the Jackdaws. 
At the risk of sounding like an old codger, I remember when at least part of the building was a working smiddy, run by an elderly gentleman called John.  It was a remarkable throwback of a place, with a dark, slightly forbidding interior, piled high with generations of iron and steel.  John was very good to us.  He made the grate for the strange-shaped fire in the Port Charlotte Hotel, and also built us a spit on which we impaled a pig - roasting it whole over half an oil drum full of charcoal.  That pig fed around 250 folk the day the hotel opened.  I think I have a photo somewhere, but those days things were strictly analogue, and being an old codger I can't remember where anything is...
Carl

Blacksmith in Port Charlotte



This is the south end of Main Street Port Charlotte.  I do not know the date.  To the left of the photo you can just make out a blacksmith working - probably shoeing a horse.  The building is still called 'Anvil House" today.  It looks as if the blacksmith was also a wheelwright.    The cart propped agains the wall behing the well-dressed young man needs a new set.  The young man walking down the middle of the road does not appear to be wearing shoes, which was quite normal for young people in these days.



The Museum of Islay Life holds thousands of old photographs of the island.  Also check out the link below for another excellent collection.

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