UHI- North, West and Hebrides have partnered with the Hynish Trust to publish stories from Skerryvore Lighthouse Shore Station on ‘The Coast that Shaped the World’ website and app. This platform, that we launched in 2022 and continue to update and manage, hosts stories from across the west coast and islands. We had a great afternoon sitting down with John Pirie, former lighthouse engineer, and Dr John Holliday, local historian and chairman of An Iodhlann, to hear about the history of the station and experience of visiting the iconic lighthouse- with so many amazing stories it was hard to narrow it down to a small selection to publish online. We also took some immersive 360° photos of key buildings and locations- these can now be found on Google Maps for the benefit of those who cannot visit Hynish in person.     

 The stories can be read on www.coast.scot, or download ‘The Coast that Shaped the World’ app. You can find them by zooming in on Tiree on the interactive digital map. 

 We are delighted with this collaboration, not least because it has given us the chance to visit your beautiful island, explore this fascinating site, and eat some good seafood at Alan Stevenson House! We are so impressed by the strides that the Hynish Trust are making in preserving and improving access to the site, and by their commitment to the wider Tiree community. We are full of ideas about possible future projects we could do together – hopefully we’ll be back to help publish and promote some of the other great stories we heard.  

 Dr Katie Murray, Project Officer

UHI (North, West and Hebrides)