John Stoddart by horse and cart

John Stoddart by horse and cart

Photo: Duncan MacDonald © PPHA

John Stoddart was blacksmith as well as being one of the postmen at Pennyghael . Bertie Black (from the Lamont family of Pennycross) remembered him well. .

"I used to take great delight in holding the horse's head-harness whilst John Stoddart shod them or whatever. John, unbeknownst to me, had a glass eye- his right eye, and apparently when he got some grit from the hearth entering this eye he just used to winkle this eye out, wash it around in the adjacent water bucket and then pop it back into the socket. The first day he carried out this operation in my presence I got the fright of my life. I just dropped the rein and took off - I don't think I stopped until I got to Pennycross cottage!! He was a Skye man and his Gaelic wasn't at all like Mull Gaelic, so sometimes the folk who took him work to be 'blacksmithed' became exasperated trying to tell him just exactly what they wanted done!! "

(The young lad in the photo is not Bertie – it is a young Duncan MacDonald)