TAYNISH MILL - Scottish Natural Heritage

Lade wall and pier
The elder boy reached the gate in time but the younger was not quite quick enough; the bull
caught his kilt on a horn and tossed him over. He suffered no more than bruises and, no doubt, a
good fright. Mr. France remembered the celebrations for the return of the owner of Taynish from
the Boer War. Flags were arranged on a string across the road near Gatehouse, and he was sent
up a treet to fasten one end, the branch being not strong enough to hold a grown man. I had
asked him about the kind of food they had, and he remembers beef occasionally, and that once
his uncle slaughtered a sheep, but thinks that they depended mostly on what they got from the
sea. They would put nets out from the shore near the mill, where in later years we did the same
thing, catching cuddies, and occasional sea trout or mackerel, and crabs. Mr. France also
remembers the horse drawn coach which plied from Tayvallich to Lochgilphead before the motor
bus was introduced. There were two drivers, he writes, Mr. MacCulloch and Mr. Tyre, and adds
that there was ‘quite a bit of rivalry between them’. There was one shop in Tayvallich then, and he
does not remember a postal delivery, and thinks most people collected their mail from the post
office.
29