The Canna Phone Box

I have posted before on Canna's red phone box, once a communications oasis in a large area of the Hebrides with no mobile phone coverage (see this link).  On many occasions it was the only place I could call home during a Hebridean cruise.

The Canna box (about three years ago)

It was not only myself that found the phone useful. In 2009 a 100+ million dollar business deal was concluded here (see this link).

Sadly, the phone, installed in 1955, was not destined to reach its 60th birthday. On a visit to Canna last month I found the box to be derelict and rusting away. What was once an iconic site in the isles will soon look like the moldering boxes on Scarp and Soay.

Canna box - August of 2015

Canna Box

Update: When I visited Canna in May of 2016 I was happy to see that the phone box had been repaired.

Island Phone Boxes - 6

While there are a half-dozen or so phone boxes on Tiree, this particular one, set next to a ruin above Traigh Bhagh, is memorable to me. I sheltered in it during an autumn storm (see book 2, chapter 8). After a few minutes inside I decided the rain was not going away. So I changed into waterproofs before leaving the box to resume my walk around the island. A few minutes later, as I was walking in the heavy rain, I was offered a ride. Tiree is a friendly place.

Island Phone Boxes - 5

Like the box on Soay, the Scarp phone box is now derelict. These photos shows it standing next to what had been the shop, but is now a private home. I have two friends who live on Scarp, Brian and Sheila Harper. If you stand in the right location near their house you can just barely get a mobile phone connection to Harris. 

Island Phone Boxes - 4

Soay is known for having the first solar-powered telephone exchange. However it would take more than a little sunshine to make a call these days from the Soay Phone Box. The inside is gutted and the phone is gone. I would imagine that back in the day Gavin Maxwell made a few calls from this box.

Island Phone Boxes - 3

The Canna red-box is a communications oasis in a dead sea of mobile phone coverage. I have lost track of how many times I've made the mile-long round-trip hike from Canna pier to the phone box to make a call to see how things were going back home. 

I have also sheltered in the box a few times when the rain was pouring down and there was no other shelter to be found. If the weather is bad Canna can be a frustrating destination; the cafe is no longer in business (once a great place to sit out the rain), and never on the ten or so times I've been there has the Church of St Edward's, or Canna House, been opened to the public. But, hopefully, one day I'll be able to step inside both those historic buildings.

Speaking of historic things, if the weather is good, be sure to make the long hike to Sgorr nam Ban Naomh (second photo). It is one of the premire Hebridean hikes.

Sgorr nam Ban Naoimh

Island Phone Boxes - 2

Island phone-boxes are special to me in that prior to the availability of mobile phones they were the only way I could call home during island trips. These days that is still the case for Canna, where there is no mobile phone coverage. The photo below is not of a unique box, in the sense that it is on Mull, where there are a dozen boxes. But it is unique in the sense that it appeared in the 1945 movie "I Know Where I'm Going". Filmed party on Mull, there is a scene where a call is made from a phone box set next to a noisy waterfall. Nearly seventy years later it is still a noisy place to make a call. The box lies about halfway down the road to Carsaig pier, and in the photo you can see the waterfall to the right of the box. 

Island Phone Boxes - 1

Although I have seen a few, I've not seen all the 'unique' western-island phone boxes. By 'unique', I mean where there is, or was, only one phone-box on the island. Rum, Muck, Canna, Scarp, Tannara Mor and Soay come to mind. Over the next few posts we'll see some of those, along with other island boxes I've found in interesting spots. How I wish I'd taken a photo of the box on Rum. I am not sure if it is still there, but when I last tried it I wasted a few coins unsuccessfully trying to call the mainland.

We'll start with the abandoned red-box on Tannara Mor. There is a new box on the island, located a half mile north by the post office, but it is not quite as picturesque. Next time we will visit the most famous red-box in the Scottish Isles: the one above Carsaig on Mull that appeared in the movie 'I Know where I'm Going'.

Journey to Tiree 4

Here are a couple of random photos from a wander around Tiree on a wet autumn afternoon. I used the phone box in the first photo to shelter from a brief rain storm. But there was no such shelter when another blew through when I was sitting on the top of the island (second photo). But the big golf ball, an ATC radar, provided some shelter.