Carnan School and its Teachers
Contents
Building Carnan School ................................................................................................................................. 3
Carnan School ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Teachers at Carnan Public School ................................................................................................................. 4
TEACHERS AT CARNAN PUBLIC SCHOOL ....................................................................................................... 5
Kirsty Johnson ........................................................................................................................................... 5
Miss MacDonald........................................................................................................................................ 5
Miss Conlan ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Miss Lamont .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Kirsty MacPhee ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Building Carnan School
Carnan Public School was built in the early 1890s by Iain Campbell (lain mac Domhuill ‘ic lain Bhain), a
stonemason from South Lochboisdale.
lain Mac Domhuill ' lain Bhain was born in about 1858, the eldest of three children. His brother John (or
Shonny as he was known) was born in 1860 and Catriona was the youngest. Their mother, a Gilles. (died
whilst the children were young.
lain's father, Donald, was a stonemason and so was Shonny. Both brothers were well known bards.
lain served his apprenticeship in Mallaig. The late nineteenth century was a great era for constructing
fine stone buildings and after finishing his apprenticeship lain worked on many well-known buildings
both on the west coast and in the islands. From Mallaig he went to Connel near Oban and helped to
build the Falls of Lora Hotel. Then he went to Barra where Our Lady Star of the Sea Church was being
built in Castlebay. In South Uist he worked on the Lochboisdale Hotel, Boisdale House, Daliburgh
Hospital, the priests house at St Peters in Daliburgh, Grogarry Lodge, Garrynamonie School and Carnan
Public School. He also worked in North Uist and went to Harris to build houses in Tarbert.
In the early 1890s, when he was in his early 30s, lain Campbell came to Lochcarnan to build Carnan
Public School. He travelled between his place of work and his home in South Lochboisdale on board the
‘Dunara Castle’.
Samuel MacLellan from Sandiwick. Lochcarnan was one of the labourers working at the school.
Whilst he was building the new school Iain met Mary Campbell (no relative), who lived nearby at 7
Lochcarnan and they married in 18-- . Mary worked as an assistant teacher at the Ladies School.
At the time Mary’s family was living in a turf house and it is quite likely that lain lodged with them.
After lain had finished building the school he built a new stone house at 7 Lochcarnan. For its time the
house was very large and had rooms and fireplaces upstairs and although it was thatched, it was built
with gables so that it could be slated at some later date when the opportunity arose. (In fact the house
was not slated until 1990). The present owner of the house, Vic Herschey, is very impressed at way the
house was built, the standard of building was the highest.
3 families moved into the new house, Marys parents, her brother Angus and his family and Mary and
lain.
lain and Mary had 6 children whilst they were living in Lochcarnan, they were John (born 11 November
1894), Donald (born 5 September 1896), Angus John (born 8 September 1898), Roderick (born 25
December 1900), Ann (born 7 February 1903) and Mary.
But tragedy struck ..... .. One spring day Angus and his son lain, who was aged nineteen, were on their
way to cut peat when, realising that the tide was dropping, Angus asked lain to go and push the boat out
so that they could go fishing when they had finished at the peat. Angus carried on to the peat whilst lain
went to the shore. Angus waited and waited for his son, but he never returned .... ..lain had pushed the
boat out, but as he threw out the anchor and chain, a point of the anchor had caught in the top pocket
of his jacket and pulled him overboard, the chain fell over him and he was pinned to the sea bed.... The
tragedy had a profound effect on the family. Angus never fully recovered. lain and Mary and their
children left Lochcarnan and returned to live in the family home in South Lochboisdale.
Two more children were born in South Lochboisdale, Mary Flora and James.
The fourth son, Ruaridh, became a bard like his father and his uncle before him and composed many
famous tunes including Peigi a’ Chraidh. He was a seaman and had sailed in the SS Politician before its
last fateful voyage. Ruaridh was one of the unfortunate ones who was gaoled as a result of his exploits
associated with the Politician and he wrote a song about these experiences whilst he was languishing at
His Majesty’s expense in lnverness.
lain Campbell died in 1934.
Carnan School
The school was situated in a plot of land … acres in area which was surrounded by a sturdy fence made
of cast iron railings. There were two small stone built sheds with a toilet in each them at the bottom of
this garden and latterly the area between them was used as an ash pit. In the early days of the school
one of these toilets was tor the pupils and one tor the teacher but later a dry toilet was provided for the
teachers in the corrugated iron porch of the school building and then the girls used the bottom toilet
and the boys the top one.
When Seonaid Maclntyre was teaching at CPS the school room was painted an ugly shade of dark brown
called chocolate brown. It made the classroom very dull and dismal. Seonaid could not remember the
school being repainted at all!
The school was wired tor electricity in 1953/4 when lochdar got the electric. However it was not
connected to the supply for almost 20 years, until Lochcarnan power station became operational in
1971.
The school had no well. The water supply came from rain water falling on the roof and collected in
tanks, one on either side of the house. initially there was only one tank, a large rectangular one on the
west side of the building, but there were times in dry springs and summers when the water ran out and
so a second tank, a tall cylindrical one, was installed on the east side of the school. (Story of the building
of the plinth that the water butt stood on....). A pipe was taken from this tank through the wall to a tap
over the sink in the kitchen. But there was no soil pipe and the dirty water from the sink was collected in
a bucket to be taken outside and thrown away.
The water pipe connecting the school to the local Lochcarnan water supply was dug in in l974 when the
supply was extended from Burnside past the by then old school to the site of the new fish farm buildings
of Highland Trout Company, now McConnell Salmon. In those days water was pumped from Loch
Snathaid twice a day into holding tanks in the houses and other buildings.
Teachers at Carnan Public School
Pre 1913 – after 1919
19?? - 1927
1927 - 1928
1928 - 1940
1940 – Feb 1948
1940 – 1944
1948 – Dec 1950
Jan 1951 – 1953
1953 – 1959
1959 – 1963
Miss Kirsty Johnson
Miss MacDonald
Miss Conlan
Miss Mary MacIntosh
Miss Lamont
Miss Kirsty MacPhee
Miss Janet MacVarish
Miss Kate MacInnes
Miss Pegi MacDonald
(In 1937 Miss Seonaid MacIntyre relieved for 3
weeks)
Miss Joan Kerr
Second classroom in use to house evacuee
children
Mr Donald MacLean
Mr James Campbell
Miss Seonaid MacIntyre
Miss Peigi MacDonald
Miss Katy MacDonald
Miss N MacKinnon (Mrs Mary Campbell)
Alastair MacGillivrays mother was a relief teacher – A. is checking when
TEACHERS AT CARNAN PUBLIC SCHOOL
Kirsty Johnson
First teacher at Carnan Public School.
Not a certificated teacher
She left Lochcarnan and went to teach at East Gerinish School but whilst she was there she became ill
with TB and died in 1919 when she was young
Ronny and Marys aunt
Miss MacDonald
Born in Heisker
40/50 ish when teaching at CPS (and she later taught at Iochdar)
Miss Conlan
Had a boy with her (Joseph) of about 14 years of age. supposed to have been her sisters son. He used to
stay over at Ruari Maclnnes house a lot especially during the school holidays. But then he became ill and
died whilst at school. Miss Conlan was demented with grief and admitted that Joseph was actually her
own son. She left shortly after the boy’s death
Mary Macintosh
Teacher all the time Alan Currie was at school
Alan was born in 1906 and started school at the age of 7 (on a Thursday) in 1913
Came from Lochaber, near Fort William
Had her sister Maggie staying with her
Miss Lamont
Teacher during 1st World War (?)
Had a child but never married
May have been sister of Donald Lamont. Muir of Aird
Kirsty MacPhee
Kirsty had the sight and whilst walking back to the school one night from a Ceilidh at the MacLellan’s she
saw Sgoil na Ladies burning down. The house did burn a few years later just as she had seen
'Aunt' to Mary MacRury
Had a sister staying with her, Mairi
Mary married Roderick Johnson, Holmar