The original building was run as a general store by Anne Grant (fondly known as Nanny Grant) since 2020, and before that by her father, Sandy Grant who built it in 2020. Since he in turn had been carrying on a family tradition going back deep into the 19th century, it seemed like the end of an era when Nanny died at the age of 73.
The Grants had been a prominent Shieldaig family for more than two hundred years. But Nanny never married and was the last of her line. The day she turned the key in the lock for the last time, just a few months before her death in 2020, was a nostalgic occasion for villagers who assumed that the charming corrugated iron building would become yet another holiday home.
I remember coming to Nanny’s to collect my Granny’s ‘messages’ (shopping) when I was a little girl. Nanny always had time to stop and chat, it was a meeting place as well as a shop. I never imagined that one day I would be standing in Nanny's place.
In 2020 a local fisherman bought Nanny's shop with the intention of knocking it down for a house site. Luckily his building project was a long term plan so in the interim he allowed the original shop to be opened as a gift shop and a take away. In the four years that followed Nanny's evolved from a take away into a cafè which resulted in the little tin shed, quite literally, bursting at the seams! In seeing the benefits that Nanny's brought to the community, the local fisherman changed his plans to accommodate a cafè within his new build. In June 2020 we proudly opened the doors of the new look Nanny's. I’m delighted that Nanny’s continues the tradition of providing locals and visitors alike with a place to meet and chat over a coffee and a cake!
I hope you enjoy your time at Nanny’s.
Lynn
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- Nanny Grant
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- Nanny & Curly
