Ali Beag's vivid description of his days as a salmon fisher is one of a number of varied stories recorded by a group of volunteers working to establish an archive of the oral history of Lochbroom.

There are plans to use extracts from the interviews gathered during the Lochbroom Lives oral history project to create an exhibition at Ullapool Museum that will paint a picture of life, past and present, in the area through the words of people who live there.

Ali, now aged 67, left school at the age of 16 and joined Muir's salmon netting enterprise.

The weather was very good during his first summer on the salmon fishing.

"We worked long hours in the boat and we were as brown as berries," he said.

Ali was with the crew that fished "the north side" at Pollaidh Bay.

They would drive over to Inverpollaidh by Land Rover to the anchored boat, and sweep net the bay. He described sweep netting as rather like trawling, with the net set out in a large circle around a shoal.

"Young Willie Muir would sit on the hill with Polaroid glasses on, this helped him to see the fish coming along and he would shout out instructions to the crew in the boat.

"At the end of the day the catch — with each box of fish weighing a hundredweight — would have to be carried in the heat and the midges up the hill to the Land Rover."

Ali explained the salmon fishers worked a long day.

Ali Beag . . . insight on the past

The fishers left for Inverpollaidh at 6am and they would not get home until about 10pm. They lived of flasks of tea and sandwiches.

The catch would be driven to the Ice House at Badentarbet.

The fish would be packed in ice and transported the following day either on the mail bus — if there were just a few boxes — or, for large catches, the Garve Lorry would be used.

This was a lorry that came around daily from the railway station at Garve and picked up goods that could not be carried by the mail bus.

The fish would travel by rail from Garve to Billingsgate. Willie Muir's father – also Willie – would get a telegram to tell him the fish had arrived and what the daily market price was.

Lochbroom Lives volunteer interviewer Pauline Ward from Coigach interviewed Ali and a number of other residents.

She is part of a team of volunteer interviewers who have been working hard at building up the collection of oral history interviews.

A dedicated oral history archive corner will be set up in the museum where people who want to research or just listen to accounts of life in communities across the Lochbroom ward.

Anyone interested in getting involved or telling their story contact Meryl Carr on 01854 633248.

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