Toscaig, Applecross peninsula, NW Scotland
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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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!
This is our home for the week.
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Is that a shepherd's croft?
Wow, watch that full screen, sitting close. I can see why Hadrian said, screw it, build a wall. :haha:
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?
Wo but how does a tourist know the proper etiquette?
Quickly, unless they want to end up in a wicker man.
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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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. :lol:
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. :lol:
How many sheep, over how many centuries, to make these steps?
Limey, you take us to the neatest places... thank you. :notworthy
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/articles/highlands/clearances/clearance_page1.html.
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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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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. :lol:
Wow, watch that full screen, sitting close. I can see why Hadrian said, screw it, build a wall. :haha:
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?
You may only pull into the passing point on your side of the road, but yes, if you see another vehicle approaching and the passing point is on their side, it would be sensible to stop opposite it. Depending on the terrain (line of sight)and the observation skills of the other driver, they will already have spotted you and be looking for a place to pass.
If you both value your paintwork and wing mirrors anyway.
(I haven't bothered to look it up in the Highway Code, but I'm fairly confident about it from my driving days)
Limes may disagree, because she lives in a place descended on by tourists, but I've always found visitors to be more careful drivers. They don't know the roads, and they
know they don't know the roads. So they don't hammer their cars around blind bends or assume everyone else knows where the passing points are.
Limey, that's a wonderful place for holibags. But in October? Really?
You and Mr Limes must need to have some really house-shaking sex in order to go to such a remote place...
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 :)
When I was in Bermuda, tourist destination, I asked our touring cab driver where residents go when *they* want to be tourists. "New York City!"
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.
And after a few hundred years of this, having to figure out how to use
every single edible piece of the animal, the
renowned national dish is "a savoury pudding containing sheep's heart, liver and lungs; minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach."
Wow - very cool. My heart was racing just watching that.
:eek: Did anyone else notice the biker at the 2:50ish mark? :eek: EEEEK!
And after a few hundred years of this, having to figure out how to use every single edible piece of the animal, the renowned national dish is "a savoury pudding containing sheep's heart, liver and lungs; minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach."
And man, is it tasty.
The secret is the disconnect between the taste and thinking about the disgusting ingredients.
My mother refused to have anything to do with Haggis, so to placate Grandma when she came for Sunday dinner, Mom would make a concoction she called "scotch ham". No, there was no alcohol involved, ground up civilized(ham,shoulder,bacon) pig parts boiled in a cheesecloth sack. Of course keeping with the New England Yankee tradition, no spices. You get salt & pepper, and like it, goddamnit. :rolleyes:
Ahem.
Mr Limey and I went for a walk today. It started at "the car park where the turn off for the submarine testing station is." (I put that in for xoB's benefit. ) Because I am so unfit we only managed about a third of the intended distance but it did involve a significant climb of about 600 feet in less than a mile so I feel that I have achieved something.
I took a couple of photos which don't show the elevation (or the submarine testing station) at all.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta take a break sometime. Eat, take a short walk to limber up, then back to business. :p:
However, thanks for the pictures.
As you wish, Fargon!
Here is the little harbour down the road from us:
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And here are a couple of shots from our walk yesterday. The land on the other side of the water are the Isles of Skye and Raasay:
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These pictures might inspire someone to volunteer for the Mars trip. At first glance it looks almost desolate, but with a beauty in the expanse and subtle texture/color, all it's own. Then looking closely there's a million details in the flora, mosses, lichen, and tiny plants striving for survival on every surface.
This and a friendly sheep, would be paradise for a writer, at least in the warmer half of the year.
Limey, in addition to all your other talents, you're one hell of a photographer. :notworthy
xoB - the photographer was Mr Limey . He is also fond of sheep.
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It's surprisingly affordable.
So my new life goal is to write something worthy of recording there.
xoB - the photographer was Mr Limey . He is also fond of sheep.
Obviously the man has good taste in photography, pets, and wives. :thumb2:
It's surprisingly affordable.
So my new life goal is to write something worthy of recording there.
Why not rent it and let it inspire you when you stay here?
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So yesterday we went on a boat trip on Loch Torridon.
The weather was lovely.
We didn't see much wildlife, the sea eagles, seals and harbour porpoises were all hiding, but the views were stunning.
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If you're interested in geology this is loessian gneiss:
It is 2.8 billion years old, pretty hard, nothing much grows there so you find few settlements.
This is Torridonian sandstone:
It's only 1 billion years old and softer stuff. It degrades into soil in which things can grow and therefore this is where settlements occur.
The Isle of Skye (see pics in previous post) is a mere baby at 600 million years old and so is very pointy as it's not yet been worn down by the weather.
Here's another gratuitous landscape:
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It is indeed stunning.
Your photography (or Mr Limey's) is too.
And blimey, didn't you get lucky with the weather?!
My pics this time :)
Yes, we've been lucky with the weather. Today looks pretty good, too, so far.
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I guess the sea eagles, seals and harbour porpoises, were intimidated by the sunshine/weather, but your camera loved it. Don't be surprised if the tourist agency steals your pictures.
Oh, and thanks for the geology, was that information from the boat/tour operator, or just another facet of the Limey family's vast talents? ;)
Geological info courtesy of the boat operators.
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I love Highland cattle... and before some smartass makes a remark, no, not literally.
From Sundae's pictures of the woods on your island, this looks pretty different. Both are cool, however.
There are two types of woodland on Arran: the "managed" stuff which is all Sitka spruce (not a native species and so very barren), which is currently being "harvested", and the native mixed, mostly deciduous stuff of which there is much less. I much prefer the latter, and it is similar to what I've shown here.
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And finally we took a look at a couple of beaches, first at the appropriately named Sand:
and then at Applecross itself:
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Interesting to see such lush vegetation when the surrounding landscape is so harsh looking.
Must be on Torridonian sandstone and not loessian gneiss.
Must be on Torridonian sandstone and not loessian gneiss.
Yes, I think so. Looking at the rock face where they've blasted the "new" road round the coast. There's an interesting view/spot which I hope to get round to photographing tomorrow.
By the way, all photos are taken with my trusty Samsung S5 phone and not doctored in any way.
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I saw some pictures recently where they were cutting a new multilane highway through the mountains, Appalachians I think. Anyway the pictures showed the different types and colors of the freshly cut rocks and soils like a layer cake and explained how and when each layer was added over billions of years. Also what gave each layer it's color and why some layers were twisted. Cool stuff.
That phone gives great quality pictures, Mr Limey using the same?
Nope. He uses an iPhone 6 Plus. Photos also au naturel from his phone.
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Well. That was a thread killer wasn't it?
The Applecross peninsula is about fifteen miles north to south and eight or nine east to west. There are around a hundred (permanent) households, some with just one inhabitant. I'm not sure how many holiday homes/letting cottages there are.
There is a primary school (for ages four to eleven) but at age eleven the kids have to go to secondary school in Plockton. This would be a relatively short sea journey from Toscaig pier that I photographed a while back, but there is no ferry service. It is a one hour forty minute drive each way so just about all of the Applecross kids therefore board there through the week in a school hostel.
There is a reasonably well-stocked general store on the peninsula, but the nearest town with a supermarket of any size is Dingwall or Inverness - a round trip of 165 miles or so. Tesco (a UK supermarket) has just begun delivering to Applecross, a development which the local shop is watching with trepidation.
There is a doctor resident on the peninsula. She is on call 24/7 by default. Mobile phone coverage is atrocious, so you may not be able to reach her first go if she is out. The nearest hospital is on Skye. Two and a half hours away. There is a small fire station not far from our holiday cottage. If it is like Arran, the fireman are all volunteers.
I didn't ask how many policemen there are :)
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Only two photos today, of a place where they had to blast through the sandstone to make the "new" coast road:
We went for a drive over all of that loessian gneiss landscape today because the man on the boat trip said many people thought it was as good a drive as the Bealach na Ba. They're not wrong. We did our own sort of dash cam thing with Mr Limey holding up his phone as we drove back but you're going to have to wait to see that until we get home as the upload would take a week at least :D
Tomorrow we're off to Skye over the bridge ...
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Beautiful patterns and colors in that stone. I can see shapes in it like when I look at clouds.
Thanks for posting those pictures, limey.
It makes me realise both how much of this small island I haven't visited, and how overcrowded we are down here in the bottom right hand corner.
That is a great series of shots.
Lovely pictures, delightful and informative text. A+
