Kelly's Pier

When we first came to live in Taynuilt, our children played on the pier, crab-fishing and swimming. Now they bring their own children to the pier and I remember the days when they were small and all the village children regularly gathered together for common enjoyment. Today, children are not seen in large groups anywhere in the village. Life has changed. I love the old rotten wooden stakes of Kelly’s pier, paradoxically teeming with life - sea anemones, crabs, jellyfish, small fish and otters to name some. Our children grew up and the pier became the favourite place for having wedding photos taken. As I was stitching, I realised that the place has always been important to people - iron age forts are abundant on these shores and the Vikings sailed into Loch Etive. The pier itself was constructed for the iron industry in the 1700s when iron ore was brought by barge from Cumbria and smelted at the furnace in Taynuilt, before being exported again from the same pier. Kelly’s Pier has served as a launching place for vessels cruising Loch Etive, canoeists and swimmers and today is a popular spot with holidaymakers. Stitching the pier was fun as the real life pier changes all the time with the light and the tides, so many colours are appropriate. The main thing I enjoyed was the texture of wood, seaweed and water - all challenging and all satisfying.

HEAR MORE ABOUT MELANIE'S JOURNEY STONE

This audio forms part of a series of audio interviews conducted in 2023 by Smartify as part of the Spirit of the Highlands and Islands project. Listen and discover the Spirit of the Highlands and Islands through the eyes of the stitchers of the Tapestry of the Highlands and Islands.

Join Melanie as she shares the inspiration behind her journey stone, her family connections to Kelly's Pier, its iconic stakes and the pier's incredible history.

There would be 30 children down there at any one time with scraps of bacon from their mother's fridge, holding up crabs and putting them in buckets and then counting them all back onto the shore at the end of the day...it was very specific part of our family history there when we first moved.