11, 12, 13 & 14 July; Mon, Tue, Wed & Thurs

 

I didn’t move from the campsite on Monday.  I spent the day washing and cleaning.  That did mean that I became oppressed by my noisy neighbours; I had noisy French families both sides.  It’s been a major shock to the system coming back to “civilisation”, places full of tourists - coachloads of tourists - and have been really surprised at the number of foreign tourists in Skye: lots of German, Japanese, French and, inevitably, Dutch.

So on Tuesday afternoon I caught the ferry to Raasay. 

Leaving Sconser, Skye

A tight fit on the ferry

This is the long thin north/south island lying  between Skye and the mainland north of the Skye bridge.  I have been there before…

In the early 80’s Simon and I had one of our more eccentric holidays.  We both had Student Rail Cards; Simon was either doing his law diploma or studying for the Bar exams and I was doing my MSc at Aston (albeit part time but I had a very accommodating tutor) and those were the days of guards vans on trains (and guards) so I packed bike bags with tent, sleeping bags, AIR BED!!, clothes, eating & limited cooking stuff and we caught trains up to Inverness and across to Kyle of Lochalsh, caught the ferry across to Skye (pre bridge) and cycled up to Broadford where we camped for at least a couple of nights and got bitten to death by midges.  We cycled over to Elgol (and I got bitten by clegs) and fantasised about finding an open pub serving perfectly kept Hook Norton bitter (still my favourite beer) only to find a cafe, closed.  We then caught a ferry across to Raasay it wasn’t quite a rowing boat but certainly not a RoRo and spent a couple of nights there – we had to as we crossed on a Saturday and nothing operated on Sunday – religious sect on Raasay stricter than the wee Free Church - although we were able to eat at the Hotel on the Sunday as long as we arranged to do so on the Saturday. 

So on the Sunday we set off cycling up Raasay, without all our equipment.  I don’t think we got very far before Simon’s gearing broke irreperably –  judgement for him cycling on the Sabbath.  Instead of dumping the bike he insisted that he had to get out with all his gear intact (CCF training)  Back on Skye the following day we pleaded unsuccessfully with a bus driver to take his bike.  A girl offered to take his luggage (heavy) on the bus.  So half our luggage went off by bus to Armadale, I set off cycling, Simon set off walking uphill and freewheeling down.  After a few miles a chap in a pickup truck slowed down asked me if I wanted a lift.  Not an offer I would normally take up.  I explained the dilemma and he said he would help and go back to pick up Simon.  So we did manage to get to Armadale in good time to catch a ferry to Mallaig and catch the train south from Mallaig – with all the equipment.

So there was unfinished business on Raasay.  Now there is a frequent daily RoRo ferry and on Sunday, though less frequent.  There is an Outward Bound Centre (which was a fledgling in the early 80’s), a youth hostel and there is still a Hotel and a shop.  There is a lot of forestry which is currently being cut down.  I was really confused when I arrived as the ferry pier wasn’t where it should be.  My OS map had been updated in 2009.  They started using the new pier in August 2010.   It has been built next to the very old pier incorporating some of the gardens of the MacLeod’s (the Laird) house, Raasay House, where, if I recall correctly, and if I don’t who is going to challenge me, we camped.  So the old pier is now the new pier and the new pier is now the old pier.  Clear?

The main road on Raasay

The northern end of Raasay is very barren compared with the rest of the island and in mid C19th all the southern communities were re-settled to the northern end of the island and the rest of the island was given over to sheep (more profitable than people) and a wall was built to stop the people (and/or maybe the sheep?)  In the First World War 38 men left the island, 14 came back.  (The clock on the stable block stopped when they left the island and never worked again). 

Arnish is one of the settlements on the barren northern end of the island.  I didn’t know the “Calum’s road” story in the 80’s until I was leant the book by Roger Nicolson (and we hadn’t cycled that far).  In the 1950’s the local authority had improved the road up through the island as far as Brochel (Brochel consists of a very ruined fortress and one house) but refused to take it any further.   Over a 10 year period from the mid 60’s Calum from Arnish singlehandedly built a road, just under 2 miles, from Brochel to Arnish to stop the community of Arnish dying. By the time he had finished the road he was the last man living in Arnish and the school, where his wife had worked had closed.   The road is tarmaced and has passing places and if you didn’t know the story is indistinguishable from the rest of the islands roads. 

I went up there on Tuesday afternoon, found somewhere to park before I got to Brochel and then walked to Brochel, to Arnish, Torran and on the the tidal crossing to Fladday, tide in.

The crofts are on Fladday

 

Pre Jacobite rebellion, Brochel was a major fortress

 

The start of Calum’ s road at Brochel – the wheelbarrow is significant – he got through lots of those -  and pickaxes – in the 10 years.

Memorial to Malcolm MacLeod aka “Calum”

 

Calum’s road

Fladday and footpath thereto

No access to Fladday, tide in

Bog Asphodel and a bee

A visitor

Later

The moon

The following day I walked along to two of the cleared villages, now just the ruins of black houses, south of Brochel. 

Mainland Scotland

First decent thistle

I drove back over to the west coast

 

Raasay’s road, Skye in background

and walked down to the beach – subsequently reading that HM The Queen used to picnic on this beach when cruising around on the Royal Yacht.

Nice views from Queen’s beach

I bet she didn’t make the egg and cress sandwiches. 

I also investigated the old/new pier where the ironstone mineworkings litter the landscaping

Old New pier (and temp pier)

- there is a temporary pier for transporting the timber

I spent the night on the new/old pier.

 

Former gardens of Raasay House – house in the background

MacLeod’s ancestral home.  Regency frontage added in early 1800’s.  Lots of history, bought by Scottish Dept of Ag and Fish in 1922, run as a hotel, bought by an absentee landlord who wouldn’t let the old pier be developed hence the new pier to the south.  Anyway it was finally bought by the community and work to renovate was started in December 2007.  It was about to be handed over when it burnt down on 19 January 2010.  It is due to be handed over in 2012….

 

One of a pair of mermaids at the New/old pier

The other mermaid

Another lovely sunset.

Moon over Skye (you can’t say that too often)

I had decided to walk up Dun Caan, the highest point on the island (only 443m), from the south, the other end of the ironstone works -

 

but after three quarters of a mile or so gave up as, despite there being a signpost, there was no clear path and a big deer fence that I decided not to scale.  There is another way but it meant driving half way up the island again, not great in distance but the road surface is so bad that it is bit of a trial.  So I had a bit of an internal struggle and then I thought I’ll never be here again.  I did it and the views were great.

Shows barren north of island

  West

South

East

The Hotel

The stables and the clock

Back to the new/old pier and back to the camp site north of Portree and the midges – and maybe other bigger biting insects, am certainly discovering lots of bits.