Toscaig, Applecross peninsula, NW Scotland

[limey]

Well, this is where Mr Limey and I are getting away from the busy whirl of activity that is life on our island home.
Until 1976 there was just one road in and out of this peninsula, which was (and still is, according to the multitudinous warning signs) impassible in winter conditions. It is called the Bealach na Bà, or Pass of the Cattle. Eleven miles of single track road with passing places, rising from sealevel to 2,000 or more feet and back again. It is twisty.
This YouTube video gives you an idea (though it is speeded up, of course!): http://youtu.be/ybzZP2FdiXs
Dramatic stuff, eh? But how much MORE dramatic when, due to low cloud, visibility is reduced to 25feet or less. That's how it was yesterday when I drove us here at a steady 15-20mph, if that. At one point we stopped short with a cliff wall in front of us: I hadn't seen the dramatic right hand hairpin bend and we ended up in a lay by (could have been worse!).
Anyhow, it is lovely and peaceful here.


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[Griff]

Wow that is desolate, in a good way. I guess it is a landscape made by sheep? The terrain isn't so different from here but the flora is very different. You're much further North but elevations are similar... Anyway neat, thanks for sharing!

[limey]

This is our home for the week.


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[DanaC]

Is that a shepherd's croft?

[limey]

Ams these are the views from the windows.

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[xoxoxoBruce]

Wow, watch that full screen, sitting close. I can see why Hadrian said, screw it, build a wall.

The pull outs (lay bys?) are on both sides of the road, wherever there was room I suppose. So do you have a choice of pulling into one if it's on your side or stopping next to one if it's on the other side, so the oncoming driver can use it to get around you? I suppose the natives have an understood protocall, probably unwritten, but how does a tourist know the proper etiquette?

[DanaC]

Verrrry nice.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Wo but how does a tourist know the proper etiquette?

Quickly, unless they want to end up in a wicker man.

[Griff]

Great building!

[limey]

Not a shepherd's croft, not even heavily upgraded but a new, purpose built "cottage" with recording studio technology built in (which we haven't rented with the building): http://www.cruinn-leum.com/Cruinn-leum/Welcome.html. Fantastic attention to detail in the build and fittings. Lovely acoustics (yes, we brought a couple of instruments) and a very superior sound system.
My (so far gratefully received practice) when passing oncoming traffic is to pull in to the lay by if it's on my side of the road, and stop by it if it's on the other side.


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[xoxoxoBruce]

I keep forgetting how far north you guys are. If we could build a valve on the Gulf Stream, we'd be your new Gulf Valve Overlords.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Much of Applecross's attraction lies in its remoteness and its distinctive history. In 1822 a road was built from Kishorn in the east and over the Bealach na Ba, or Pass of the Cattle to Applecross village. The pass is sometimes called the Bealach nam Bo, but we've stuck with the Ordnance Survey version of the name.

Until the early 1950s the road surface was still rough gravel and very difficult to clear in winter, meaning it could be blocked for weeks on end. During these periods Applecross returned to its earlier "island" existence, relying wholly on the MacBrayne's steamer service to Stornoway and Kyle of Lochalsh for its links with the outside world.

And in winter the steamer only called en route from Kyle to Stornoway, not on the return trip. This meant anyone in Applecross wanting to catch a Glasgow train at Kyle of Lochalsh, ten miles or less away as the crow flies, had to travel out by rowing boat to meet the Stornoway-bound steamer in Applecross Bay; travel to Stornoway; wait perhaps several hours for the return steamer to Kyle; then re-cross the often turbulent Minch. It was a great improvement when a direct ferry service from Kyle to Toscaig, near the south west tip of the peninsula, started the mid 1950s (it has long ceased to operate).

link
Row a boat out and wait for the steamer?... in the winter? Kind of makes the Brit bus service look good.



How many sheep, over how many centuries, to make these steps?

Limey, you take us to the neatest places... thank you.

[limey]

The sheep are relative newcomers, despite your and my romantic notions of Scottish sheep farming. The Clearances are still remembered vividly in Scotland as a time when the (largely English) "lairds" cleared the land of its human inhabitants because sheep were more profitable: http://www.scottishhistory.com/artic...nce_page1.html.


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[limey]

People think that because I live on a Scottish island I am "remote" from "civilisation". In reality there are many, many places on the Scottish mainland which are far more remote than we are. And that's where Mr Limey and I like to holiday


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[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, remote is a huge variable and relative to the availability of transportation. That road you drove to get in there makes it remote, but the same distance on M-1 would be a snap. Your home isn't so much remote as time consuming to reach, mainly because of having to cross water.

The clearances moved all the natives out of huge swaths of land to replace them with huge flocks of sheep. But what was done other than moving people and their possessions? Were there forests to cut, or other land altering changes? Now mid 19th century saw large sheep flocks, but the native highlanders had been living there for centuries, and they had to eat. The barren terrain looks like subsistence hunting would be difficult, with minimal success. Bringing home a stag now and then can't be compared with having a butcher shop down the road. So I imagined they farmed some food, and raised highland cattle, horses, chickens, and for those long winter nights, sheep.
Is this picture, strictly from my imagination, wrong? Again.