Map Reference: Balemartine n
Name Type: building
Meaning: The cobbler's house
Other Forms: Taigh Lachainn Beag Lachainn Chaluim - WMcL
Related Places:
Information:Lachie taught him the pipes. The house was nicknamed An Stàbal - the door was always open. He had Croit Lingail in Hynish - WMcL.
He and Arthur Straker used to go to the cobbler’s workshop (Lachainn Beag Lachainn Chaluim’s) to listen to the stories. On one occasion they had taken a pair of tackety boots to get extra tacks put in the soles. Malcolm MacKinnon, Farmhouse (Neil Tais’ uncle), Calum Iain an Tuathanaich, who had just come back from Canada and had good stories was there, and so many old men the two boys could not get in the door. The minister Rev MacDonald, a Gaelic speaker, was there too. The men were complaining about the number of thistles on their new crofts (allocated in 1914) in Hynish. Malcolm told the story about how he was working in a field in Canada when he sat down to take his lunch which he had brought in a basket. He hung his hat on a thistle. When he had had finished his dinner he had to get his rake to pull his hat down. “That’s how big the thistles are in Canada!” Alasdair Sinclair, Balinoe, 3/2013.
Local Form:
Languages : GaelicInformants: Archie Kennedy, Crossapol, 3/1995
Informant 2: Willie MacLean, Balinoe, 12/1994
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