In the age of the camera-phones, disposable cameras, and digital compacts, it is easy to forget that photography was beyond of reach of many visitors to the Island of Skye until as recently as 40 years ago. Primitive cameras and primitive access made the capturing of images challenging.
A randomly selected monochrome postcard. You can find out more about this and other cards by selecting page 2 from the menu near the top and the end of this page
In those simpler times visitors depended on the picture postcard. Visitors bought postcards as mementoes of their holiday. These were stored away in drawers and albums, and when discovered often years later, provoked pleasant memories of times past. Of course the postcards could also to be posted to friends and family with complaints about the weather and midges. A tradition that continues to this day.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the hardy picture postcard photographers like Duncan Macpherson who ventured out to some of the remotest parts of the country with bulky field cameras and fragile glass photographic plates.
The next two pages display a wide range of black and white and colour picture postcards of the area around Blaven and Torrin. Postcards are rarely dated so it has not been possible to accurately determine the age of the individual images. If you have any additional information about the photographer, publisher or date, please contact me.
Postcards first arrived in the United Kingdom around 1870. These were plain cards produced by the Post Office with pre-paid postage. The price of sending a postcard was below that of sending a letter so the card became a popular method of sending short messages. Unlike modern cards, the recipients address was written on one side of the card and the message on the other.
In 1894 the Post Office allowed other companies to produce postcards but illustrations were rare because of the continued need to keep one side plain for the recipients address. The postcard we recognise today dates from 1902 when the Post Office introduced illustrated cards with the message and address on the same side, divided by a vertical line.
Copyright: All of the postcards on blaven.com are in excess of 50 years old and out of copyright. Due credit is given to photographer and publisher where this known or shown on the original card. Please do not reproduce any of these postcards without acknowledging the photographer or publisher.
