Township: Kirkapol

Map Reference: Kirkapol a

Name Type: building

Meaning:

Other Forms:

Related Places:

Information:Built on a burial ground - Angus Maclean, Scarinish, 1/1994 and Hector MacPhail, Ruaig, 1/1994.

"The Lodge, originally built for a school, had then become a gamekeeper's house, was now added to and enlarged and became a mansion or a villa or a palace, according to the ideas of those who watched its walls breaking the outlines of the Bay of Gott." Lady Victoria Campbell by Frances Balfour, 273

"When a new school was built following the Education Act (Scotland) Act of 1872 the old one was purchased by Kenneth William MacKenzie as a holiday home. He installed Margaret [the sister of the Rev John Gregorson Campbell] as housekeeper and they fell in love." The Gaelic Otherworld, ed Ronald Black, p 649

Kenneth William MacKenzie was described on his marriage certificate as Merchant (retired). He was 29 when he married in 1875. Their eldest son was Kenneth MacKenzie - see Bank House, Scarinish.

Alf Bruton was originally from Oxford. He had come to Tiree in the RAF and had been a sergeant cook on the camp. He met his wife who came from Ruaig, cooking in the same kitchen. He went back to Oxford and worked as a chef in Brasenose College and then in the Oxford Union, where Les was in charge. Alf’s hobby was growing plants and cacti and his kitchen was full of them. He bought the Lodge around 1957. He opened the Lodge Hotel around 1960. Les Crawte, Milton, 2/2001.

Alf Bruton put his trout into Loch Dubh, not Loch Grianal - Fiona MacKinnon, Kirkapol, 6/2009.

Her mother came with Lady Victoria from Bunessan. They stayed at first in the manse at Baugh but then moved the Lodge. During WW2 the Lodge was used as a billet for officers. After the war it was empty for a few years before Alf Bruton took it over as a hotel, followed by Charlie Dobson and then the Hutchinsons. Rosie MacIntyre, Gott, 12/1995.

Alf Bruton had been a chef for the RAF officers in the war in the Lodge and stayed all war (“the officers would keep a good chef if they found one”). After the war he became the Oxford Union chef and met Les there. “His hobbies became his passions,” and had plants growing in the kitchen where the saucepans should have been. He bought the Lodge, which was in a poor state of repair, around 1950. He stocked trout in a loch but they did not thrive because of the gravelly bottom – Les Crawte, Milton, 9/1998.

Lady Peggy Hoare from Gloucester rented the Lodge for shooting for 6-8 years after the war. She lived there as cook and housekeeper – Neenie MacNeill, Crossapol, 1/1999.


Local Form:

Languages : English

Informants: multiple