Point Cottage

Lismore has lost a landmark. The much photographed Point Cottage, thought to have been two to three hundred years old and originally known as Tigh a Bheallaich  (House at the pass), was known to all as Dollie’s Cottage as, before Dollina Carmichael moving to Port Appin in 1998, she had lived there all her life, indeed her mother had died there just short of 103, her father, originally from Stronacroibh, having died in 1947.

Dollie’s departure for Port Appin marked the end of an era. She was, and is, greatly missed not just by her neighbours but the entire island. Her cottage had been an open door where the kettle was always on, all were welcome, the garden mysteriously bloomed the year round: in other words the very embodiment of Lismore life.

The new owners, Morag and Richard Fowler, had loved Point Cottage for many years. Morag, being a Campbell with roots in Lismore, had visited often as a child and later with Richard and her family. So when the cottage first came on the market in 1998 her dream was to buy and renovate it. Alas when she finally did buy it, it became clear that renovation was impossible so when the bulldozers moved in in August 2003 it was a sad day for them and the island as we witnessed a slice of Lismore’s history disappearing. But the Fowlers were determined to build something that fitted at least on the outside, and the new Point Cottage has risen in the garden Dollie loved and which will never be forgotten.