Historically, curators were the learned caretakers of cultural heritage, tasked with collecting and preserving precious items. So, why then did our Heritage Manager and Chairperson ask me to curate a transport exhibition?
“Me? You want me to put together an exhibition on transport?” I exclaimed, shock and horror coursing through me with the knowledge of what I had just been lumbered with.
“Yes,” came their gleeful reply. Pride etched on their faces for handing this responsibility onto me, like they were teaching me some sort of life lesson I would thank them for later.
I know nothing about transport. I know it gets you from a to b, and comes in all shapes, sizes, modes and models. I know we would be at a loss without it, but that’s it. I don’t even know the make and model of my own car! I’ll figure it out for the insurance purposes, but the most I can tell you is, it’s silver!
I’m the person who flipped her car on the Lochs Road four months after passing her test. I’m the person who relies on the good nature of strangers to tell me when I’ve got a light out. I’m the person who drove to work on flat tyres, completely none-the-wiser. Was I really the best person for this job?
Nope!
But there I was, suddenly laden with an exhibition and no clue where to start. In these situations, I find it best to find someone who does know a little about the subject matter. That someone was Matt Manclark, a collector living on the Rubh with Balallan connections.
As it turns out, Matt has a collection of sixteen motorcycles. He contacted the society, got the Heritage Manager and Chairperson and asked, ‘would you be interested in displaying my bikes?’ ‘Of course,’ came their enthusiastic reply. ‘And we know just the simpleton to put this exhibition together.’ (I wasn’t there, but I imagine that’s how the conversation went).
So, off I went, notebook in hand, and an empty head on my shoulders, driving through the Rubh in a car I don’t know the make of, to speak to a man about a bike. Or rather, sixteen bikes.
Matt was a darling. He didn’t patronize me for my lack of knowledge on motor vehicles. If anything, I think he relished the opportunity to speak to a complete novice and share his passion. We had a lovely afternoon, looking at all the old bikes and memorabilia.
Our first hurdle was choosing which bikes to display. It would have saved me months of work if we could have just wheeled in all the bikes and stuck up a little plaque for each one, but there was no way we were fitting sixteen bikes into our special exhibition space.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, I’m the one responsible for delivering the Kinloch80 project. Remember, the project about the history of Kinloch over the past eighty years. No? You forgot? It’s okay, so did I. Needless to say, any exhibition I put on would/should have this time period in mind.
So, Matt went through them all, highlighting which bikes would have been popular on the island and sharing his knowledge of the types of people who would have owned them, when owning a motorbike was not as accessible as it is now:
1951 BSA A10 GOLDEN FLASH
1954 NORTON
1976 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T140V
The BSA and the NORTON were, what Matt described as, your working professional’s bike. They were sturdy, not built for speed or comfort, but they could handle the Hebridean roads, and get you where you needed to go. The TRIUMPH, signalled a shift from practical to pastime. Factory lines were making more bikes faster and for less money, making the idea of owning a motorcycle more accessible. It was also designed with two markets in mind, the US and the UK, with a different tank style provided depending on where on the map you were based. People have been customising their belongings for years, but the idea of ‘chopping’ really took off in the 1970s.
So, I had my three bikes and a little bit of history to go along with them. Who did I speak to next…? Oh, yes! Our local fount of knowledge, Donnie Macleod. Donnie’s father, Angus J Macleod, ran a very successful business selling fish from a van. Before everyone used to get their shopping from the local Presto/Safeway/Morrisons/Tesco, food vans would provide the rural towns with anything they couldn’t grow or produce on the croft.
Two grocery vans come from Stornoway weekly, one baker’s van twice a week, two drapers’ vans, three or four butchers’ vans per week, and two fish vans when fish is available. Visiting vans stimulate competition and are a great convenience to isolated homes. Shops in the main meet the needs of the local community but they do not deal in such items as coal, furniture, etc. which have to be purchased in Stornoway. – Third Statistical Account of Scotland (1987), Vol xiii. (Ross-shire), February 1954 [Kinloch], Rev Angus Mackillop, Church of Scotland
Donnie’s father also used to pick up the kids for school and deliver the school meals. That was in a different van, I hasten to add—he wasn’t transporting the kids along with the fish! The van was so well known in the village, people can still remember the licence plate: Morris van, BJS 2B.
Donnie, of course, provided me with so much information on the various bus operators that served the Kinloch community, many of whom had their start in the village of Laxay. There was one that stood out to me, an express carriage service owned by an Isabel Macrae which ran from Keose to Stornoway. Who was Isabel Macrae? And at a time when businesses, particularly transport businesses, were owned by men, how did she come to own such a service?
This particular rabbit hole had me reaching out to the Stornoway Historical Society—our Kinloch Croft Histories (Gleanings) having very little information about the Macrae’s. Ken Galloway at the Stornoway Historical was an absolute gem in providing me with the information I needed. Isabella had acquired the business from her brother Hector in 1933, before selling it to John Murdo Kennedy of Orinsay in 1947.
Another detail that stood out to me from Donnie’s information was just how many bus operators and haulage companies had a connection to the village of Laxay—which I have affectionately dubbed,
The Transport Capital of Lewis.
One such company which had its beginnings in Laxay is AMK Plant & Tipper Hire Ltd, which came into being in the early 2000s, when Alexander John Mackenzie took over from his father, John Alex Maciver. Before John, there was his father, Alasdair Calum Mackenzie, who started as a very young boy helping his dad and bought his first lorry in the early 1930s. Alasdair’s father was John Mackenzie, who started with a horse and cart in the mid-1800s. Four generations, soon to be a fifth with Adam and Katie who are both keen to continue on the family business. It is in the blood in Laxay, and it needs to be studied!
I spoke with Alexander and the team at AMK who provided me with a complete history of their family business. They also very generously offered the use of their vintage 1980s Leyland Clydesdale lorry for the exhibition launch, as well as photographs and other items to display.
To say that this exhibition grew arms and legs is an understatement. It became apparent, very quickly, that transport and vehicles is something many people in Kinloch are passionate about. It is so much more than a hobby, it is a way of life, ingrained into the community almost as much as crofting.
By the time of our exhibition launch in September 2025, we had more information and items than we knew what to do with. So much, in fact, that we had a re-launch of the exhibition in October with photographs and models on display from members of the Transport Preservation Group.
People were turning up in their own vintage cars and spending hours going through all the photographs and information. Locals and visitors were sharing stories of their favourite bus drivers, their time widening the roads throughout the island, and the vehicles they remember running up and down the A859.
Kinloch Connections: Transport Through the Years has been one of our most successful exhibitions to date. I have never witnessed anything like it—a community of people all coming together and bonding over a shared passion. Credit for its success does not belong to the Kinloch Historical Society. It is the people and businesses of Kinloch, and our friends and neighbours all across Lewis, who made this exhibition what it was, a celebration.
So, as jaded as I was about putting on this exhibition, I do in fact have to offer my heartfelt thanks to my Heritage Manager and Chairperson for trusting me with it. While I still can’t tell the difference between an Audi and a BMW, I do know that for a rural community, such as Kinloch, transport is more than just a necessity. It is something that connects people, not just via the roads on which these vehicles roam, but through a shared passion.
Oh! And my car… it’s a 2013 Toyota Verso S.
Written by Gemma Malcolm, Museum Community Engagement Officer
