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Achateny
Achateny maps
Historic maps of Achateny and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Achateny maps
Achateny area books
Displaying 1 of 2 books about Achateny and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Achateny
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Argyll memories
Ghost Stories.
As children,we attended Sunday school which was at the base in one of the nissan huts, as we got older it was the church service. After church we would walk to the Castle in pitch darkness, with Tommy and Bet Stewart, telling ghost stories. The castle was a ruin then with walls crumbled, broken doors, which I am sure was vandalism, you could enter into the Castle, not that we did as it was too creepy. It was always an attraction when we were younger. The villagers would gather wood nearby. Folklore had it that the cave on the back beach had a tunnel into the castle, I still don't know if that is true. It was our playground, as we were too young to understand the history. It stands very proud and I know the history now, and am proud to have been born in Dunstaffnage.
Post Office Radio Station
The Maritime Radio service of the Post Office had medium wave radio stations at Wick (Caithness) and Port Patrick (Dumfries & Galloway). As the Minches were a very busy area for fishermen from Fleetwood and Milford Haven, it was decided to put a medium wave station in between and the initial site chosen was the airfield at North Connel. The first station was situated in a caravan. The staff were drafted from other stations around the UK Coast and a 24 hour watch was kept to enhance the safety of life at sea in the northwestern approaches. The staff were Donald Morrison (a Lewisman), Angus Stark, Andrew Brown, Sam Kennedy, Stan Hardman (the token Englishman), Bill Moffat and Bob Mason came later. As time went by the station was moved into more permanent quarters; a Nissan hut left by the RAF. Later, four houses were built for the staff in Connel. This meant that the staff who lived in these houses had to finish their watch at 10 p.m. -... Read more
Dunstaffnage The War Years 1942-45
In 1942 aged 5 due to my father being a shipwright in the Portsmouth Dockyard he was transferred to a satellite dockyard at Dunstaffnage where we stayed as a family until the war finished and we then moved back to Pompey. Workers in the Dockyard came from Chatham, Devonport and Rosyth. The dockyard had AFD 19 which was a floating dock to repair damaged North Atlantic and Artic convoy ships. My sister reminded me of H.M.S Bluebell, repaired, next convoy Artic, sunk, one survivor only. The village was made up of about 240 prefabs (I have photos) to house the families. We lived at 13b Hervey Road and moved to 10a when my younger sister was born in 1944. The "houses" were put together by the Royal Marines which had a camp there. What a life we had, playing in the wood below the Co-op, in the bay in the summer, on the hill on the other side of the Oban-Connel Road which only had ferns then, no fir trees like nowdays.... Read more
I Was Born in Dunbeg (Dunstaffnage.
First day at the old village school, classmates, Mrs Gardiner, Miss Cowan.
Now live North Carolina, would love to hear from anyone who remembers.
Margaret
Dunbeg School
My grandfather was the head master at Dunbeg School, he lived in the school house. Does anyone have any photos or stories? I would love to hear anything please.
Born in Oban
I was born in Oban and still have all my mum's family there, does anyone know of the Sloss family, Davie and Ina and their large family - Davie, Peter, Malcome, Alex, Billy, Robert, Jessie, Ina, Irene and Elizebeth?
Dunstaffnage, War Years
Like Brian Woodward we moved to Dunstaffnage during the war. My father was a plumber at Devonport. I, unfortunately have no memories of the time, only what my parents subsequently told me! I do know we were still in Plymouth in Dec. 1942 as my brother was born there. We had definitely moved by Aug. 1944 as I started school in Dunstaffnage. I also had a burst appendix and ended up in hospital in Oban - the scar from the drain tube still bothers me! My eldest sister, of five, was born in Dunstaffnage. We must have been back in Lee Mill, where we were housed in firefighters' nissen huts outside of Plymouth by 1946, since I attended Lee Mill Infant School before going to Ivybridge Primary. I have been living in Kintyre for 12 years since retiring to the house that was our holiday home for 11 years prior to that. By "holiday home" I mean we spent every English school holiday here, amounting to about 1/4 of the... Read more
