HMS Sturdy ran aground on the Sandaig shore in 1940. A local sea captain, Donald Sinclair from Greenhill, who was home on leave, sent morse signal with a torch and saved lives by telling the men they had come aground on an island and not a rock. Some men had already jumped and lost their lives as they thought they had just hit rock out at sea.
Tiree’s Kelp Factory located in Sandaig was known locally as the Glassary and was owned by the North British Chemical Company from 1864 to 1910. The kelp was gathered all over the island and was dried on walls behind Ben Hough and then taken to the factory where it was burnt.
The ash from the seaweed was exported off the island and used in the manufacture of iodine, soap, glass and other medicinal products and explosives during the Napoleonic wars. The waste product from the kelp was then used to tar roofs instead of the marram thatch. This is the origin of the unusual traditional Tiree felt roof houses.
