51915: Buth Dòmhnall Moil

Donald Morrison Dòmhnall Moil, born 1871 in Marvig, had a shop located at the head of the loch in Gravir near the old school. The shop was quite big for those days. It stocked everything from flour, corn, sugar, and bran to clothes and household goods. It was open all day until eleven at night with people constantly in and out. In those days there were a lot of people in the village with houses of up to ten in a family. Two people would work in the shop on a Friday and Saturday, and they were run off their feet keeping up with customers. And with the school next door, the children would be in and out all week.

All the provisions were brought in by sea and Dòmhnall Moil owned three sailing boats, City of Rome, Touch Me Not and the Stella Matina. Latterly, he owned a boat with an engine, the Jessie, which was sold to shareholders and crew from Orinsay and Lemreway. Later the boat was sold on to the Bays in Harris where it was refurbished, with a wheelhouse being added and the masts altered. She was seen by Dan Macleod of Lemreway in 1946, still going strong and renamed Bean Leddie.

When Dòmhnall Moil died in 1937 his son Murdo Alick ran the shop until another son, Donald John, came back from the War when he took over the running of the shop. Eventually this shop closed down and Donald John opened another on 4 Gravir. He also ran a mobile shop round the villages of Pairc for a number of years.