The Breachacha creamery, which was financed by the Ministry of Food through the Milk Marketing Board, opened in 1943 and built up over the years till in its peak about 500 gallons of milk a day were delivered to it. There was depression in the farming community at the time and at first everyone was very keen on the idea, even the shepherds and the crofters with three or four cows would put in what milk they had. The big farms, like Totronald and Gallanach would put in up to seventy gallons a day each during summer when the cows were out to grass, and other farms that put in regular supplies included Acha, Friesland, Achamore, Ballard, Lonban and Cornaigbeg.

The collection lorry would come here to Cornaig about seven in the morning and reach the creamery about ten-thirty. By that time I'd scalded out, changed the cloths and got the boilers going for the day. We had no electricity in those days; it was just steam boilers with coal fires underneath. The milk was put in 500 gallon vats, rennet and starter being added to make a curd. Temperatures make a lot of difference in cheese making, and on a humid day the process was quicker than on a cold one. It was difficult sometimes keeping the acidity level down and you had to be careful it didn't get away from you, otherwise the finished product would be over acid and go crumbly.

The cheese was then put in chesats - round wooden vessels with handles at each side that had to be regularly scrubbed with soda too. The largest held sixty pounds of cheese, the next size thirty and there were wee barrels called Stiltons. After going under the presses, the cheeses were put on shelves fixed with swivels that could turn up to half a ton of cheese at once - and this had to be done every day for weeks. So it was a long process - about six weeks altogether - between the milk arriving at the creamery and the cheese being sent off in two-ton lots to cheese merchants in Glasgow. A cargo boat would come for it at regular intervals and the cheeses were taken out on the ferry boat and manhandled on to the cargo boat - which wasn't easy on a rough day!

I was six years in the creamery, running it more or less myself and, though it was hard going at times and meant working a seven-day week in the summer, I was sorry when, in 1949,1 had to leave owing to home commitments. The creamery continued to operate until 1954, but by that time the government was giving big subsidies for beef cattle and all the farmers were switching to beef. We at Cornaigbeg were the last farm to keep a dairy round going.