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Strathpeffer; Knockfarrel;
Mineral Well, 1—Castle Leod; Auchterneed; Enlistment; Raven Rock, 2.—Ben
Wyvis; Rare Plants; White Hare, 3.—Battleof Blarna-Parc; The Turning Stone,
4.—Contin; Coul, 5.—Excursion to the Falls of the Conon and Scuirvullin;
Torand Loch Echiltie; Comrie; Scatwell; Loch Luichart; Scuir Marxy, 6.—Strathconon;
The Black Rocks, 7.—Scuirvullin, 8.—Short Route to the West Coast, 9.—Strath
and Loch Carve; Falls of Ro Rie; Sheep Farming, 10.—Loch Luichart; Strath
Bran; Loch Carron, 11.—Road to Ullapool, Strath Dirie, and Dine More; Loch
Fannich; Strath and Loch Broom; Croft System; Fisheries, 12.—Ullapool,
13.—Routes from Ullapool, Coigach, Little Loch Broom, Loch Greinord; Road to
Poolewe, 14.—Road to Auchnasheen; Loch Torridon, 15. —Loch Dlaree, 16.—Gairloch;
Flowerdale; Poolewe, 17.—Roads to Shieldaig and Applecross; The Bealiach;
Applecross, 18.
To Kyle Akin
1. From Dingwall, the main
parliamentary road to the west coast of Ross-shire proceeds through a
succession of valleys, extending nearly to about the same length as the
great glen of Inverness-shire. The first of these is Strathpeffer,
stretching five miles westward from Dingwall. It was, till within a few
years, a low marshy valley, occupied by stagnant waters, large reeds, and a
few stunted alders. Now it yields the most luxuriant crops of grain, and is
one of the richest and best-peopled districts in the country. On one side
the parks and woods of Tulloch Castle (D. Davidson, Esq.) diversify the
front of the hill which intervenes between the strath and the base of the
mountain Ben Wyvis; and, on the other, the ridge, significantly called
Druimchat, or the cat's back, which separates the valley from the policies
of Brahan and Strathconon is crowned with the vitrified fortress of
Knockfarrel, one of the most celebrated and, at the same time, one of the
most beautiful and strongly marked hill-forts in the country.
The vitrified rampart at top
encloses an oval area about 140 yards long by 40 wide, with breastworks
proceeding down the adjoining slopes. There was a well or tank for
rain-water on the summit; and the sections made long ago by Williams, one of
the earliest writers on these forts, still remain open, and show the great
extent of the vitrified matter, which is in some places from eight to ten
feet deep. The fir woods stretching down from the southern side of this
station embosom a beautiful little lake (Loch Ousie), with tree-clad islands
and promontories, and which, especially from the southern shore, displays
magnificent views of Ben Wyvis, with a soft and rich foreground.
Strathpeffer has, of late
years, become a fashionable watering-place. Near Dingwall it contains some
chalybeate springs, which, however, are not much used ; but at the opposite
extremity of the valley a handsome pump-room has been erected over a well
strongly impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen gas, and which is recommended
as a cure for a great many diseases. Dr. Thomson, of Glasgow, on analysing
this water, found that, while a quantity of it holds twenty-seven cubic
inches of sulphureted hydrogen gas, a like quantity of the celebrated
Harrowgate water contains only about twenty cubic inches. In the
Strathpeffer Spa several saline ingredients also exist, which add much to
its medicinal properties. The following are the results of Dr. Thomson's
analysis of the well, till lately principally used; but adjoining it an
older and much stronger and more abundant spring has this season (1850) been
found.
An imperial gallon of the
water attached to the pump-room yielded:-
Until of late years strangers
found much difficulty in obtaining lodgings in the vicinity of this well.
Several villas and neatly built houses, however, are now springing up about
the place; and there are two good inns, at one of which, the Spa Hotel,
visitors often arrange to mess together at a common table, when the charge
for board and lodging is two guineas a-week for each person. In summer,
private lodgings near the well cost from 10s. 6d. to 21s. and 50s. a-week.
The season for drinking the waters in greatest perfection extends from the
month of May till October. Their valuable properties are undoubtedly derived
from the bituminous rock through which the waters flow, and which is a
member of the old red sandstone formation. Composing the hill of Tulloch on
the northern boundary of Strathpeffer, the rock passes by Castle Leod, and
assumes its most characteristic form on the estate of Coul, that of a
dark-coloured calcareo-bituminous schist, soft and foliated, and frequently
much contorted and mixed with beds of shale, abounding with pyrites, or
sulphuret of iron, the rapid decomposition of which by water obviously gives
rise to the medicinal springs. This rock displays most singular and
unaccountable contortions, more numerous and varied in aspect and position
than almost any other rock in the Highlands. It also contains, in a few
places, some small pieces of pure hard bitumen, which have occasionally been
collected, and used as coal by the tenantry on the Tulloch and Cromertie
properties, on which it is found. This anthracitic coal has also been
discovered on the ridge north-west of the Dun of Castle Leod imbedded in
primary gneiss rocks, a most unusual occurrence.
2. The greater portion of
Strathpeffer formed part of the estates of the old Earls of Cromarty (Mackenzies),
which now belong to the Marchioness of Stafford, one of whose residences,
Castle Leod, is in the immediate vicinity of the Spa. Placed near the base
of a round-topped ward-hill, and surrounded with avenues and clumps of tall
"ancestral trees," and large parks, which conduct to the entrance of an
alpine valley and rivulet immediately to the westward, and which form a
convenient pass on the ascent of Ben Wyvis, Castle Leod presents as truly
venerable and baronial an appearance as any residence in the Highlands. [A
single chesnut tree here was lately thrown down by the wind, which measured
2, feet in girth at the ground, and 18 feet breast high.]
Opposite the castle is the
small rural village of Auchterneed, which straggles up the hill side with
its little patches of corn land, originally allotments to the hardy veterans
who returned unscathed from the great American war. There are a few still
alive who remember the enrolment of the Highland corps ; and it but ill
assorts with the free notions of the present day to think of the manner in
which they were embodied. Their landlord, Lord Macleod, fixed a day for
meeting his people at the castle; and taking the rent-roll of the estate,
his factor and he arranged the number of young men that could be spared from
each farm and homestead, and then announcing their resolves to the tenantry,
their behests were most unhesitatingly and thankfully acceded to.
3. Ben Wyvis, or Ben Uaish,
"the Mountain of Storm," is of easy ascent, but from the quantity of mossy
ground at its base, and the great breadth of its shoulders, an excursion to
its summit is generally regarded as very tiresome. Visitors may avoid much
of the fatigue by riding part or most of the way, provided they can procure
ponies accustomed to soft hilly ground. From the summit the view of course
is most extensive; and a hundred-fold worth all the labour of climbing to
it. Ben Wyvis is the king of Ross-shire mountains, and, indeed, of all the
mountains on this side of the island; but its importance arises less from
its altitude (by the late government trigonometrical survey ascertained to
be 3426 feet, being less than that of Ben Dearig, on Loch Broom, which is
3551 feet) than from its enormous lateral bulk, and extensive ramifications.
The noble proprietrix, however, need never be apprehensive of being unable
to yield the return for which it is said she holds the mountain from her
Majesty, that of producing a snow-ball from its corries on any day of the
year. On the ascent, the pedestrian will be annoyed at the immense extent of
mossy broken ground at the base ; but after passing the first snow wreaths
in Aultcunire, which we recommend as the easiest track, he will find the
whole upper acclivities deeply covered with a firm elastic moss, and from
the cairn on the top, he may approach and look down the cliffs of
Corie-na-feol or the Flesh Corry, from the number of deer and cattle that
used to tumble into it, and which has of late been a very fertile ground of
litigation, more expensive many times over than its intrinsic value.
Moorfowl and ptarmigan abound on the heights, and white or alpine hares are
also numerous. They burrow and bring forth their young in holes under the
peat banks, and their habits are quite intermediate between those of the
common hare and rabbit ; when disturbed they run first for a short distance,
and then sit up on their hind legs and look at the intruder as a tame rabbit
would. Ben Wyvis is composed of slaty gneiss, with numerous large veins of
horneblende and granite, and intermixed with garnets. To the botanist this
mountain is chiefly interesting for the earlier spring flowers, as Saxifraga
oppositifolia, Arbutus alpina, Azalea procumbens, Betula nana, &c., and for
its mosses, and as a habitat for the scarce grass, Alopecurus alpinus. The
lower straths and woods are more prolific in rare species. Thus in the woods
of Brahan, Linnc a borealis occurs in great beauty, and in the Coul fir
wood, about a mile to the west of the Strathpeffer pump-room, the extremely
scarce and beautiful little bell flower the Pyrola unijiora, has been
detected in two or three large patches, as also Corallohiza innata, Jtalaxis
paludosa, and Lycopodium inundatun.
4. Strathpeffer, now the
resort of the fair and the gay, as well as of the sick and decrepit, was, in
days of yore, about the year 1478, the scene of a bloody conflict between
the Macdonalds of the west coast and the Mackenzies, who were aided by
parties of their neighbours, the Dingwalls, Baynes, Maccullochs, and Frasers,
in which the latter were victorious. Gillespie Macdonald the nephew, or, as
some say, the brother of the Lord of the Isles, headed one party, and the
chief of the Mackenzies, whose residence stood on an island in the small
adjoining lake of Kinellan, commanded his troops in person.
This chief had, for a slight
offence, repudiated his wife, a sister of the Macdonald, and married another
lady, a daughter of Lord Lovat. The clan, in revenge for the injured honour
of their chieftain Macdonald, laid waste the lands of the Mackenzies. It is
said they were challenged by the latter to meet them on this spot, and the
combat which ensued was most desperate. A thousand of the Islesmen were
either killed or drowned in the river Conon while attempting to escape. This
conflict is generally known as the battle of Blar-na-caun or Blar-na-Parc,
and was immediately followed by the utter downfall of the Macdonalds, Earls
of Ross, and the complete establishment of the power of the Mackenzies.
Kenneth-y-vlair, the conqueror in this battle, was afterwards knighted by
James IV., and was buried at Beauly ; and, being succeeded by his son
Kenneth Oig, (or the younger,) his estates were long managed by Hector, the
uncle of the latter, and who was founder of the house of Gairloch. During
his tutory, Sir William Monro of Foulis, harassed the Mackenzies, and it is
said even carried of by force Seaforth's lady ; but the tutor of Kintail
finally defeated him on the ridge of Knockfarrel, and the spot where the
Monroes and their allies first gave way, is marked (a little below the pump
room) by a stone pillar with an eagle—the Monroes' crest, rudely carved on
it, and which is called Clachan-Tiom-pan, or the turning stone. This
neighbourhood would admit of a guide-book for itself, so rich is it in
varied and interesting scenery and traditionary story, and we have dwelt
rather much in detail, as Strathpeffer is now a place of great resort. As
our limits are circumscribed, we will only at present add, that Episcopacy
was long of giving way here, and even after its overthrow, some of its old
nonjuring clergy were quietly permitted to enjoy their stipends till their
deaths. At Fodderty, however, the people for a long time, defied the
Presbytery ; and at every attempt even for years after the beginning of last
century to settle a minister, the old wives stoned him back and would not
permit him to enter the church.
5. Quitting Strathpeffer, the
road again brings us to the banks of the Conon, passing by the beautiful
manse and island of Contin, and the mansion-house of Coul (Sir Alexander S.
.Mackenzie, Bart). This is the proper and finest native woodland district of
Ross-shire, and is, at the same time, greatly diversified with alpine and
lake scenery, and fertile cultivated fields.
Crossing, a little below the
beautiful residence just mentioned, by a handsome bridge, over the river
Blackwater, which flows from Loch Garve, lying to the westward, the road
ascends the birchen height on the west hank; but on passing Contin Inn, near
the bridge, a branch road will be seen deflecting to the south, which
conducts past Loch Echiltie and Comrie, to the falls of the Conon, and the
strath of that name. As we would recommend an excursion in this direction to
the visitors of Strathpeffer, as well as to tourists generally, we will here
endeavour to thread them through its various beauties as succinctly and
accurately as we can.
6. Behind the conflux of the
rivers Conon and Blackwater, which unite a little to the east of Contin
village, a broad alluvial flat will be seen, extending to the base of a
beautiful rounded birch and pine-clad hill, from which a long undulating
ridge declines to the westward. This hill is called Tor Echiltie, and is an
excellent botanical habitat. It exhibits an interesting junction of the old
red sandstone and primitive gneiss rocks, the former being seen abutting
against the others on the eastern frontlet, at a high angle; while all along
its base, and on each side of the adjoining valleys, the eye will be struck
with a succession of beautiful terraced banks, on which several
sweetly-placed cottages have been erected. A private drive round Tor
Echiltie to the southern side, proceeds through splendid oak and birch
copses, overhanging the bed of the river Conon. Returning, however, to the
branch road which, as we mentioned, strikes off at the inn of Contin, on the
Blackwater, we shall find that it leads us past the pleasure-grounds of
Craigdarroch, lying at the base of an oak-covered rocky bank of that name,
to Loch Echiltie, an exquisitely beautiful sheet of water, about three miles
in circumference, which is embosomed among birch-clad knolls, formed of the
terminating ridges of Tor Echiltie on the south side, but which, on the
opposite hand, rise into higher, and bolder, and more picturesque eminences.
Two or three small islets at the lower end, and several wooded promontories
projecting into the lake, afford beautiful foregrounds to the view; while
the extreme distance is closed in by the sharp blue-toned peaks of
Scuirvullin in Strathconon. The carriage-road keeps along the northern
shore, and after a few abrupt ascents and descents among the birken knolls,
it leads us past a series of little circular lochs or ponds, (the edges of
which are surrounded by magnificent belts of the broad-leaved white
water-lily, and their coves the nestling-places of water-fowl), and then
ushers us, two miles on, to the smooth green plain of Comrie, and the
beautiful pastoral valley of Scatwell, watered by the combined streams of
the Meig and the Conon. [A fine heronary, with numerous nests, exists in an
island on a lake a little to the north-west of Loch Echiltie.] The former
river flows from Strathconon, which lies almost due south from the
spectator, its direction being strongly marked by the great guardian peaks
of Scuirvullin; while the latter is found to turn to the right hand, and is
discovered to proceed through an opening of the mountains at the lower end
of Loch Luichart. This lake, which is celebrated for its trout, is the
parent reservoir of the Conon, which, for the first mile of its course,
tumbles over a series of gneiss rocks, dashing its waters through them in
several picturesque low cascades, or running cataracts. The hold rocky
frontlet which overhangs the lake and these falls on the southern shore, is
called Scuir Marxy ; and, although not above 1600 feet high, we can
recommend it to the botanist as exhibiting, at this low elevation, several
interesting and truly alpine plants, as Rubus (lhamcemorus, Tlialictrum
alpinum, Circea alpina, Arbutus alpina, and in connexion with the ridges
stretching westward to Mossford, whole forests of the suberect but beautiful
dwarf birch, or Bet ula-nan a. Its gneiss rocks, also, abound in large
crystals of shorl, inclining to tourmaline. Tor Echiltie is the extreme
westward limit of the common whins and broom, neither of which are found as
native plants further inland, nor on the west coast, though it has there
been extensively introduced.
7. We have now led our
readers six or seven miles westward from Contin; and, before returning to
the main road, we would advise them to pursue their course through
Strathconnon to the top of Scuirvullin, which lies not more than eight miles
farther on. A ford across the rivers Conon and Meig will be found near their
junction, through which horses can pass, if the weather is fine and dry; but
the regular ferry-boat, which lies a little farther down, opposite Milltown
of Scatwell, near the beautiful residence of Captain Douglas, will be
preferred by strangers, especially if the waters are high. Attaining the
southern bank, a fine new road, which commences at the Muir of Ord near
Beauly, where it leaves the main post road, and conducts along the side of
the valley, leads us, a mile on, over a high and bare rocky ridge, to the
entrance of Strathconnon. It is a green, narrow, pastoral plain, once the
bed of an ancient lake, the waters of which, in cutting through the barrier
of rock at the lower end, penetrated to a great depth, and formed a channel
for the present river Meig, which here presents the unusual but very
interesting appearance of a continuous cataract nearly a mile in length,
rushing along at the bottom of a narrow, savage gorge, which few heads can
bear to look into. Some scattered birches, oaks, and roan trees in the
clefts of the "Black Rocks," as they are called, give us an index to their
height; and perhaps the passenger in the summer season may enjoy the
additional excitement of beholding the tenants of a neighbouring hamlet
descend these steep rocks for salmon, which they catch in wicker baskets
suspended over the falls below, or which they spear while resting themselves
in the still pools and eddies at the sides of the river. A false step in
this descent would prove instant destruction; and when the waters are
swollen with rain, no man could stand against their stream if once fairly
involved in it.
A few large alder trees and
birch copses line the margin of the river and the sides of the valley of
Strathconnon, which is seldom half a mile wide; but which retains still the
melancholy proofs of having once been thickly peopled, in the numerous
deserted and ruinous houses and hamlets strewn over its now lonely pastures.
Part of an old estate, the owners of which were attainted for their
participating in the rebellion of 1745, Strathconon has never since regained
a proprietor's family, attached by old recollections and kindly services to
the poorer inhabitants; and being long in the hands of creditors, and
exposed to all sorts of experiments in the arts of sheep and cattle grazing,
many fires have in consequence been extinguished in it, which were rekindled
no nearer than the other side of the Atlantic; and gloomy, therefore, must
be the feelings with which the stranger will now trudge on over its almost
silent fields. Several rather large farm-steadings and shepherds' cottages,
however, are still to be seen; and when the tourist approaches near the base
of Scuirvullin, he will descry the white walls of the government church, and
the neat, respectable manse of the minister of the district, with the large
shooting-lodge of Mr. Balfour, the recent purchaser of the estate, near to
which the road crosses the river by a bridge, but as yet it has not been
carried farther. [Great quantities of honey are raised in this district; and
the gardens at lower Scatwell brink to perfection almost every variety of
fruit, and of the most delicate foreign flowering shrubs.]
8. Scuirvullin may be
ascended without a guide, and the outer breastwork, which composes its base,
may be scaled along the course of a small burn immediately to the north-west
of the church. This is the most arduous part of the ascent; for, having
surmounted it, the higher acclivity is found to be a gently inclined and
mossy plane, which is nowise steep. Close by the summit the rocks jut out,
and, for a short way, make the ascent to the highest central peak more
abrupt. The other two pinnacles, which are much sharper, are not nearly so
accessible; and the eastern one is separated from the main body of the
mountain by a deep, circular hollow or corry, at the base of which lies a
small lake or tarn. The fundamental breastwork composing the lower acclivity
rises, as a continuous wall of rock, nearly G00 feet high, all round the
mountain; proceeding westward past Strath Bran, and turning thence round by
Strath Manic, which skirts it on the south, it deflects into Strathconnon,
thus sheaving the mountain to be isolated, and contained between three great
valleys, its circumference extending at the base to nearly eighteen miles.
Scuirvullin is an isolated three-topped mountain, with a deep corry and lake
between two of the summits, about 2500 feet high, and it consists entirely
of micaceous schist, inclining in some places to gneiss. All the common
alpine plants are to be seen on it; but the dryness of its surface, and low
elevation, prevent our recommending it as a peculiarly good locality for the
examination of the botanist.
9. The tourist must now
return to Contin by the way he left it; but if desirous of gaining the main
road from Dingwall to Loch Carron, he can proceed directly across the
northern shoulder of Scuirvullin, by a continuation of the Strathconon road
into Strath Bran, and he will attain his object after crossing some rather
soft ground, being ushered to the parliamentary road half way between
Auchnanault and Auchnasheen. The country people, in passing to and from the
west coast, always adopt this route; and, from experience, we can assure our
readers that in summer it is quite safe, much more interesting, and greatly
shorter than the other, especially if the journey is undertaken from
Inverness or Beauly, in which case the road by Arcan, Fairburn, and
Strathconon, should be exclusively followed. But to return to the Dingwall
road.
10. Ascending from Contin
towards Strathgarve, the next valley towards the west, over a series of
birch-clad hills, the picturesque waterfalls of Rogie, which have been
likened to those of Tivoli in Italy, present themselves in the river below
us, and to which the proprietor has formed. an accessible footpath, and
connected the opposite banks by a neat airy bridge, now, however, requiring
to be repaired.
Loch Garve is a fine open
sheet of water, with extensive green meadows and plantations at the west
end. The inn is small, but comfortable; and here, whether he has to proceed
on to Loch Carron, or over the Dirie More to Loch Broom, the traveller takes
leave of the cultivated and wooded scenery. Those immense sheep-tracts here
commence, which supply the great staple commodity of this county—the farms
varying in size, being capable of accommodating from 2000 to 10,000 sheep,
or more, some of them occupying whole estates, and one gentleman having
almost an uninterrupted sheep-walk from the pastures of Wyvis to the western
sea. One hundred pounds is the average rent applicable to the pasture of
1000 sheep; and to shew the change of value of the land, we may mention,
that the hill grounds of Fannich, were rented, not above 70 years ago, for
five pounds, while they now yield annually nearly as many hundreds. A system
thus requiring the land to be exclusively and quietly devoted to the "beasts
of the field," could not admit the presence of the old Highland peasantry;
and hence they have had to emigrate, or to be crowded into small hamlets of
turf-built huts, each with a croft or a few roods of enclosed amble ground,
(for which, however, they pay from three to five guineas a-year, a rent
which the land itself cannot produce), or they are still found densely
huddled together on some bye corner or promontory of the west coast, where
they are allowed to squat, and eke out a livelihood by fishing.
11. Loch Luichart, with its
heaving braes and fine rocky screens on the southern shore, where the
summer-sunset effects are exquisitely beautiful and varied, relieves much of
the monotony of the journey through the bleak bare mountains. Although the
hand of taste and opulence is now discernible on its shores, and especially
around the beautiful shooting lodge of the proprietor, Sir James J. R.
Mackenzie of Scatwell, yet its native glory has departed, for it was once,
about a generation ago, encircled within an oak forest, having some of the
largest stems in the highlands, the felled stumps of which are still
occasionally to be seen, and at a little distance are often taken for rocks
instead of trees. At Grudie, where the river issuing from Loch Fannich comes
roaring down from the right, the road enters a picturesque gorge, and
immediately after ushers us on the great upland valley of Strath Bran, which
stretches for eight to ten miles before us a broad sheet of meadow pastures,
through which the silver thread of a small river, expanding here and there
into pools and lakes, creeps lazily along. At its farther end, the abrupt
descent and inclination of the hills to the west coast is perceptible; while
the southern flank of the strath is bounded by the beautiful peaks and
ridges of Scuirvullin, and the northern by the long green slopes of Foin
Bhein, (Fingal's hill), [Sportsmen and tourists often rest awhile at the
comfortable inn of Auchnanault, and the latter generally ascend Seuirvullin
from it. We would recommend Foin Rhein as preferable, inasmuch as it is
directly opposite the Scuirmore of Fannich, which with its associated alps
is cut into stupendous conies and precipices, and as it is nearer to the
western chains on Lochs Miaree and Torridon, and besides commands a view of
both seas. The ascent is quite gentle; and the hack of Foin Bhein itself,
overlooking the loch, is cut from the summit downwards into a series of
grand cliffs. The botany is intermediate between that of the east and west
coasts.] and the other rich pasture hills of Loch Fannich.
Beautiful terrace banks
encircle Strath Bran; and as we approach Auchnasheen, they are deflected
into the opening by Loch Roshk, towards Lochs Maree and Torridon. At Luip we
pass the last fresh-water lake (Loch Scaven), whence the streams begin to
bend towards the west coast; and presently the upper bays of the salt-water
loch Carron come into view. Isere also are met the wrecks of another
splendid oak and pine forest ; and the mountains opening wider their arms,
and decreasing in height, give space to fields and large belts of cultivated
ground, and to a broad expanse of sea, which is often enlivened by
multitudes of boats and busses occupied in the herring-fishery.
Since leaving Strathpeffer,
the principal properties through which the road passes belong to Sir
Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, Sir James J. R. Mackenzie, Thomas 'Mackenzie,
Esq. of Ord, and Sir Evan Mackenzie of Kilcoy. We now enter on the domains
of Thomas Mackenzie, Esq. of Applecross, late M.P. for the county of Ross.
From Jeantown on Loch Carron,
where there is a long and straggling, but prosperous fishing village, the
Skye road leads to Strome Ferry, which was anciently guarded by a square
keep or castle, and thence by Balmacara to Kyle Akin. Some noble views are
obtained, on the way to the latter place, of the fine inlet of Loch Duich,
and the steep and lofty alps of Kintail. Some, however, prefer taking a boat
the length of Plockton, and thence crossing over by a new road (six miles)
to Kyle Akin, or at once sailing direct to Broadford, in Skye, which is the
preferable course, if it is meant to perambulate that island.
12. The districts to which
the roads branching northwards from the Dingwall and Loch Carron road lead,
are among the wildest and least known in the country; but they abound, in
several places, with striking and varied scenery. They are three in number:-
1. From Strathgarve to
Ullapool, on Loch Broom.
2. From Auchnasheen to Lochs Maree and Torridon, and the district of
Gairloch, ending with Poolewe, the packet station for Stornoway.
3. From Jeantown, on Loch Carron, to Shieldaig and Apple-cross.
We shall describe each of
these routes in their order.
1st. The district road to
Loch Broom, and the village of UIlapool, on the shores of that loch, strikes
off near Garve Inn, proceeding over the high ascent of the Dirie More. Its
old course may be seen for a mile or so, tending to the north-east of Loch
Garve; but a gentler line has lately been taken to the north, along the
Dirie Water by Achnaclerach and the deer forest of Kirkan. The distance to
Ullapool is about thirty-seven miles. This road was first made about sixty
years ago, at the expense of government, and cost £4500, and it was then one
of the best roads in the Highlands ; but after being long neglected, it is
now undergoing a thorough repair. It conducts across a dreary district,
called Strath Dirie and the Dirie More (the long road or step), to the glen
at the head of the larger Loch Broom. There are two very indifferent
public-houses on the way, the first at Glascarnock, about twelve miles from
Strathgarve, and the other at Braemore, a like distance from the former, at
which also provisions are not always to be had ; and then the traveller has
to trudge on for other seven miles, to a miserable little village called
Ardcarnich, where he may possibly get some refreshment, should he previously
resolve not to throw himself on the hospitality of some of the farm-houses;
but the accommodation will doubtless soon also partake of improvement. The
mountain torrents which cross the Ullapool road are exceedingly annoying to
travellers; and the largest one, the Torrandu river, a little beyond
Glascarnock, is not always fordable with safety; but we are glad to hear
that the bridges are now being all restored, and this season the line is
expected to be open throughout. The very existence, not to say prosperity of
the Loch Broom and Dundonald people, who are in a state of abject pauperism,
almost depends on this great line of communication with the lowland markets,
and the proprietors are actively exerting themselves to complete the line of
communication by Dundonald and Loch Greinord to Poolewe. The strong
pedestrian can greatly diversify and shorten the way, if, instead of
quitting the main road at Garve, he goes on to the public-house at Grudie,
and then takes a guide over the hill past the end of Loch Fannich by Ault
Derag, Ault Cunire (the Fox's Burn), and Ben Lia, and crossing high up the
Torrandu to avoid the boggy ground which skirts it lower down, he should
reach the Dirie More road a little westward of Loch Drome or Druim, not far
from the top of Strath Broom, where the waters shear to the opposite coasts.
By taking this route the tourist sees Loch Fannich, which is a mirror
encased among most wild and picturesque mountains, of which its two great
guardians at the cast end, Cairn-na-Beast and Ben Eigen (or the difficult
pass), with their splendid deer corries and rifted precipices, are
particularly striking; and where (especially in Garrow Corrie-More and
Quilichan, and indeed all the way to Ullapool), if in any parts of Britain,
there are the most undoubted evidences of ancient glacial action. A close
view is also had of the Scuirmore of Fannich, and at the same time all the
stupendous, wild, and terrific screens and ranges of mountains which rise
along the western and northern sky burst on the sight ; as those of Loch
Maree, Strath-na-Shalag, Ben More of Coigach, Ben Derag, and Ben Lair, at
the top of Strath Dirie, and the more distant but exquisitely-formed peaks
of Freevater. Each district in Ross-shire is thus distinguished by its own
group or cluster of high bare rocky alps, and each is marked by its own
peculiar form and outline, while great blanks occur between the lower
heights, which are composed of long unbroken chains and ridges, separated by
wide table-lands or pastoral valleys. Strath Dirie is one of these, nearly
twenty miles long, and which, even from the road through it, is visible from
end to end, the road itself appearing as a faint yellow line undulating
along the heath. The most oppressive gloominess prevails throughout its
solitudes ; no sounds to break upon the ear, save the bleatings of sheep or
the lowings of cattle; no trees, no houses, or marks of man, save a few
shepherd's huts at great distances from each other, or the grass-covered
walls of hamlets lon° deserted, and the rude cairn, piled here and there to
mark the graves of persons who perished in the storm. With GoIdsmith's
Traveller one feels himself continually exclaiming that here " wilds
immeasurably spread, seem lengthening as they go."
A sudden bend northward at
the pretty Falls of Strome, where dwarf birch, alders, aspens, and rowan
trees first again meet us, changes the scene, and the lower, softer, and
grass-clad hills of Loch Broom or Broam (the Lake of Showers), greet the
eye. Cultivation and dense fringes of copsewood occupy the strath, and in
the background the bright waters of the ocean, dotted with sunny islets and
rocky promontories, are spread out for many miles; the whole view to the
northward being closed in by the long and singularly bold Ben .Afore of
Coigach, which resembles a quantity of bright red drapery hung by invisible
cords from the sky, its front being quite precipitous, and seared by
innumerable water-courses.
The big strath and shores of
Loch Broom resemble some of the finest and best wooded districts in
Argyleshire, while the mountain-ranges rise very abruptly, and are of very
peculiar outline from the frequent straight lines and their sudden
deviations. Inverbroom, which lies on the west side of the river, is now the
spacious shooting-Iodge of D. Davidson, Esq. of Tulloch, and immediately
beyond are the beautifully lying church and manse of Loch Broom, the glebe
extending for two miles down along the loch, and, besides small patches of
corn ground, affording pasture for several hundred sheep. The rough
foot-path to Dundonald and the beautiful valley of Little Loch Broom crosses
it. On the east side of the bay, we pass the house and farm of Inverlair,
indicated by its ruined chapel and burying-ground, and which is an old
holding of the Coul family, now converted into a fine sheep-walk, but
capable of extensive agricultural improvement. The house, we believe, was
erected by the British Fishery Society, and intended for an inn, but the
neglect of the Dirie More road, till of late, rendered such a luxury
unnecessary. A very marked feature of the vegetation in this district is its
constant greenness—a sort of perpetual spring. Even late in summer there is
a continued shooting forth of leaf and flower, with little tendency to
ripening—the hazels and alders are mere bushes, rarely attaining to the
maturity of trees, and are interwoven into perfect thickets by long rank
twigs of dogrose and woodbine; while, even in the end of July, the sward
beneath is bedecked with the delicate petals of such spring flowers as the
wood sorrel, harebell, dog violet, and primrose. So umbrageous and dark are
the copses, that the thrush is tempted to sing the whole day long, and not
in the morning and evening, as elsewhere, and the hat comes forth in broad
daylight. A soft dasied zone of meadow-land encircles the whole of Loch
Broom, the rocks of which are formed of gneiss, and this green carpeting
instantly disappears as we reach the red sandstone deposits on the outer
shores to the west or northward, which are all brown and heathery. Small
irregular crofts of corn land have been gained from the pastures, on which,
in general, clusters and rows of black huts arise, having walls and passages
of loose stones leading up to them disposed in all the labyrinthic forms of
the Chinese puzzle ; and to each such little holding is attached the
privilege of an outlet for one or two cows to the hill-grazing above, which,
however, is limited to the ridges next the sea. The rent of the crofts
varies from one to five guineas a-year, the average on the adjoining estate
of Coigach being £3 : 8 : 6 to each crofter—no part of which is ever looked
to as to be produced by the land, but to be won from the sea, if the fishing
should be prosperous. In short, the people seem to be penned in, not the
sheep; and while squalid poverty is marked in every countenance, the average
number of each family is 6 souls, which is equal to the most prolific and
wretched Irish cabins. Thousands are willing and anxious to emigrate, but it
is only the robust and active who are able to earn as much as to defray
their passage; and hence the Highlands are yearly being drained of the
young, while the old and feeble are of necessity, and most reluctantly, left
as paupers at home. Trees would grow well in this district, (as may be seen
at the manse, Inverlair, and Loch Melim); but the poor Highlanders would not
now let them grow, the temptation to use them for firewood and spars being
too great. The herring seems to be almost the only fish the native cares to
look after, (perhaps from its giving them only occasional and exciting
occupation); and hence their boats are not fitted for deep-sea fishing: and
in consequence the produce of the coast in cod and ling is annually picked
up by enterprising crews from.... and the Moray Firth, in the very teeth of
the famished Highlanders.
13. Ullapool, like many more
renowned cities, .... from a distance, and from the sea. It stands on a fine
terraced, gravelly promontory, about half a mile square, between the Loch
and the mouth of the river of Achall, and from the sea-beach to the summit
it exhibits several parallel lines of houses, most of them whitewashed, and
slated or tiled, the church, manse, and the principal inn, being the most
conspicuous. A few handsome old ash trees about one of the residences and
the burying-ground, with a neat harbour and breakwater, form the chief
adornments of the place—the post-office and all the principal shops and
houses being arranged along the beach, looking southwards, and extending
along its whole length ; but behind these, three parallel and spacious
streets, with ample gardens, were lined off for the poorer fishermen,
though, in fact, they have only been. half finished. The village was founded
by the British Fishery Society about sixty years ago, when the herring trade
was at its height, and was intended to be a beautiful town on a spacious and
regular plan ; but the herring shoals having for many years abandoned the
adjoining loch, the prosperity of the place has been sealed up, and now
"ruin greenly dwells "in many a half-built house of considerable outward
show, the one end only being occupied as a dwelling, and the other left to
the elements, or as a residence to the cow and pig. A more delightful
bathing beach could not be desired than that of Ullapool—the air, in summer,
is soft but bracing—the splendid mountain scenery is generally enlivened and
set off by boats and vessels, which here find a safe anchorage ; and should
the herring fishery revive, and the land communication by the Dirie More to
Dingwall, and Achall to Bonar Bridge and Tain, be again properly opened up,
Ullapool may yet revive, and become, more efficiently than at present, the
emporium and market-town to the neighbouring extensive districts of Loch
Broom, Coigach, and Assynt.
The popolution of Ullapool is
between 700 and 800 inhabitants. They held their tenements, till lately, of
the Fishery Society, who feued the ground from the superiors, the Cromarty
family, and sub-feued it again at one penny for every foot in front, and
sixty feet back, the arable land behind which is .... subdivided as the area
of the town, being let at ... per acre. James Matheson, Esq. of Achany and
Lewis, Ross-shire, has recently purchased the village, and ... fostering
care the inns, and every other accommodation in and about the place have
already been immensely improved. [We understand that Mr. Matheson is about
to have a mail gig .... shed between Dingwall and Ullapool, and a mail
packet dispatched from Ullapool to Stornoway.]
The further bank of the river
beyond Ullapool is occupied by a line of straggling ugly huts, forming the
fishing hamlet of Kinachryne. We trust the example set of spirited
improvements on Mr. Matheson's estate may soon reach it; and to quicken the
land, the people have close at hand inexhaustible beds of limestone. Coigach,
as the district to the northward as far as the boundary of Sutherland is
called, is an exceedingly wild and uninteresting district; but it has
several very valuable pasture straths, which are largely stocked with the
very best description of Cheviot sheep. The shore side and the northern
section of the district is flat, and, like the adjoining one of Assynt, is
overspread with numerous fresh--
lakes.
14. A walk of about twenty
miles by Loch Achall (the Marquis of Stafford's shooting Iodge of Rhidoroch)
and Loch Damph, through beautiful scenery, by a road which does not require
a great deal to make it a good one, leads to the Oikel Bridge main road,
between Bonar Bridge and Loch Inver in Sutherland (described Branch E. of
this route); and we recommend the pedestrian by all means to take this round
rather than to pass through the uninteresting wilds and steppes of Coigach.
Mr. Matheson has lately re-formed two miles of this road; and we doubt not
the communication will soon be completed into Sutherlandshire, a matter of
the greatest local importance. Whether proceeding to Assynt on the north, or
westward to the districts of Dundonald, on Little Loch Broom, Greinord, or
Gairloch, it is preferable, if the weather is fine, to go by boat, as a view
is thereby obtained of Isle Martin, Tanera, and the Horse and Summer Isles,
as well as of the various bays and headlands of the coast ; but in doing so,
we would caution the stranger to make a distinct bargain before he sails,
and for a crew of men and not of boys. [The geologist will not fail to
remark, in the hill behind Ullapool, tha oradual transition of the red
arcnaceous sandstone of the outer coasts into light gray and pore white
crystalline quartz rock, but still preserving its horizontal stratification,
and resting on vertical strata of gneiss and mica schist; and he will also
be struck with the innumerable indications of glaciel action on all the
rocks of the district.]
Loch Broom is about two miles
wide at Ullapool. The shores at the entrance are bold and rocky, crowned
with heathy pasture. The opening of Little Loch Broom, between low level
sandstone promontories, reveals a fine group of mountains with a peculiar
outline, and like that of the hills around the larger loch, and
distinguished by one huge, broad, dome-shaped summit. All the outlines of
the extensive mountain ranges here are very varied and well defined, while a
number of low islands stretch to seaward ; but the object to which the eye
ever reverts is the magnificent Ben More of Coigach.
Loch Greinord is a spacious
bay, encompassed by low rocky eminences, which, especially on the east side,
form numerous separate rocky knolls, among which lie little inlets, lined
with the purest sand, opening into fairy, rock-girt, verdant recesses, in
which are found sheltered several snug sheep-farm houses, as Moungestle,
Greinord, and Fisherfield. The opposite shore is more stony, and the coast
more level and cultivated. The bay abounds with haddock, cod, whiting, and
shell-fish; the Greinord river with salmon, and the mountains with deer.
Bathing, the finest possible; everything to make a couple of months' summer
retirement, even in this remote part of the world, quite enviable.
A good road leads for some
miles from Little Greinord, on the south-west, over uninteresting rocky
moorlands to the pretty bay and low promontory of Altbae, opposite Isle Ewe,
a low islet on which are considerable arable tracts. From hence a rough
tract crosses the hill to Tournay, an inlet of Loch Ewe, where, and also at
the head of the loch, we find well-cultivated fields—the whole distance from
Little Greinord to Poolewe, at the head of Loch Ewe, being eleven miles.
2D. BRANCH ROAD FROM
AUCHNASHEEN TO LOCHS MARES, TORRIDON, AND GAIRLOCH.
15. This road 'strikes off at
Auchnasheen, five miles from Auchnanault, and is now passable for carriages
all the way to Poolewe and Gairloch. From the new inn at Kinloch Ewe on Loch
Maree, a branch road turns westward to Loch Torridon, but it is only
completed as far as Torridon House (ten or twelve mile-' where a boat should
be taken to the inn and village of Shieldaig, in preference to scrambling on
by the rough footpath. This branch conducts to most magnificent scenery, at
the head of Loch Torridon, where the lower acclivities of the peaked
mountains exhibit vast sheeted precipices ; and to one who has not time to
proceed to the further end of Loch Maree, we particularly recommend it, as
Shieldaig is only nine miles from Kishorn, and five more from Jeantown on
Loch Carron, from either of which the communication with Kyle Akin, the
point at which the Glasgow steamers touch, is direct and easy, or from
Jeantown the post-gig can be had three times a-week (fare 12s.) to Dingwall;
and we hope that in a year or two a road will he formed along the side of
Loch Torridon, thereby, with the other roads in progress, forming a complete
line of communication from the Great Glen along the west coasts of Inverness
and Ross shires. Loch Torridon forms a noble arm of the sea, characterised
by grandeur, from its extent, and by ruggedness, but not by beauty. It
consists of three compartments, connected by narrow straits, the innermost
basin being of considerable size. Long low headlands line the entrance of
Loch Torridon, and afterwards rough, broken cliffs and rocks skirt the
water. Those, towards the upper extremity, rise into precipitous acclivities
of imposing height. As a whole, it is the most striking sea loch, as Loch
Maree is the most imposing fresh-water lake, on this side of Ross-shire. The
village of Shieldaig, where there is an indifferent inn, and which is
situated on a bay of the middle division of Loch Torridon, and at the base
of a stupendous cliff of ascending precipices, piled tier upon tier, and
completely screening the inner portion of the loch, contains only about 200
souls. There is no sort of trade or manufacture carried on, further than
that the generality of the people are more or less engaged in the herring
fishery. The inhabitants are very poor, and all the villages on the coast,
as Dornie, Plockton, and Ullapool, are similarly circumstanced. Shieldaig
has the advantage of possessing one of the new parliamentary churches,
which, with the society schools, have here, as elsewhere throughout the
highlands, proved a source of great advantage to the people.
16. To resime now the route
to Loch Maree, the road, after passing Auchnasheen, proceeds westward,
through an opening of the great Fannich group of mountains, which is partly
filled by the waters of Loch Roshk. Quitting it, the magnificent cluster of
high-peaked mountains round the head of Loch Torridon shoot up in the
western sky, and then, descending rapidly by a wild and narrow pass, called
Glen Dochart, the whole length of Loch Maree (St. Mary's Lake), with its
numerous islands, projecting headlands, and precipitous gray rocky
mountains, bursts suddenly on the sight. This lake is eighteen miles long,
and from one to two miles broad; and the scenery on either side of it is
about the most utterly savage and terrific, in its barrenness and
loneliness, of any part of this land of mountain and flood. A range of lofty
mountains stretches along the northern shore, sinking sheer upon the water,
and of a singularly bare hard aspect, with but a very few alluvial patches
along the lake, as at Letterewe and Ardlair, which are pleasingly fringed
with groups of trees. Of these mountains there are two particularly
conspicuous, Sleugach and Ben Lair—the former, which lies towards the upper
end (apparently not less than 4000 feet in height), rises majestically from
the water, massive, lofty, and abrupt; and it uprears nobly and proudly
above its shoulders an irregularly dome-shaped, storm-shattered head, from
which it sends down long rocky ridges on either hand; and, as it presents a
precipitous front to the lake, full effect is given to its towering
proportions. The summit of Ben Lair has a long curving outline nowise
decidedly marked, and recedes somewhat behind its conchoidal corries. On the
south the lake is encompassed by a spacious circuit of mountains, rising
range above range—their summits much independent of each other, and also
gray and hard-looking—of most varied forms, comprising several peaks, each
generally seeming to terminate a particular range, and exceeding 3000 feet;
of graceful, easy outline, mostly, however, crenulated and serrated. They
show to best advantage from the spacious sweep at Slatadale, where they are
exhibited as one vast amphitheatre, and where the lower declivities are more
clothed with heath and pasture than on the opposite shore. Towards the
middle of the lake, the islands, twenty-four in number, are chiefly
clustered. They are low, rocky, heathy, and uncultivated; untenanted, save
by the sea-mews; and but partially wooded with a few old stunted pine trees.
The outlet of the lake becomes narrow, and is bordered by copse-wooded
eminences, and half-shrouded splintery craggy heights, backed by higher
rocky hills; thus possessing much of the character of the Trosachs. In
proceeding up the lake, the view of it, as we emerge from this sweet stripe,
is truly magnificent; and the spectator is led at once to pronounce Loch
Maree as decidedly superior to Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, in the rugged
grandeur and extent of its mountain groups, as it falls short of the
richness of the former, and the woods of both. Loch Maree takes its name,
according to some, from St. Maree, a Culdee from Iona, or from Applecross,
where some of St. Columba's disciples settled, who took up his abode in the
most northerly (a circular) little isle, which, if in his time as romantic a
little spot as now, evinced propriety of choice; for, with its pebbly beach,
surmounted by a thicket of oak coppice, birch, and larch, tangled with holly
shoots from the old stems, reputed to have been planted by the Saint, and
carpet beneath of moss, oxalis, blueberry, and fern, it forms a most fitting
retreat as anchorite could desire. In the centre of the thicket, fit locale
for Druidical cemetery, there is a primitive little burying-ground, marked
by narrow undressed flags and headstones, the resting-place of some families
about Letterewe. Hard by is a little well, celebrated for its healing
virtues, the boughs round which are hung with votive rags, and the waters of
which, with the additional operation of being dragged through the loch to an
adjoining isle, are deemed sovereign for the cure of insanity. On Eilan
Rutich, on the south side, on which several of the Lairds of Gairloch are
said to have resided, there are the remains of a circular subterannean
structure, something like a Pict's house. The woods about Loch Maree were
cut down about ninety Sears ago for the smelting of iron ore. The few
remains of the forest are found on the islands, and towards the head of the
lake. Before quitting its shores, we must not forget Ben Eye, at the
south-eastern end, remarkable for its two high sharp peaks of pure white
quartz-rock, and its beautiful and stately form. Its corries, and the
solitudes of Glen Logan opposite to it, are favourite haunts of the red
deer. As remarked by Dr. Macculloch, the rocks of SIeugach contain an
unexampled number of varieties of quartz, and the view from its top is
unusually grand and extensive.
In general, people prefer
sailing down Loch Maree to walking along either of its banks, and a
four-oared boat can always be hired for any distance at the rate of a
shilling a mile, and a two-oared one at half that price, and a bottle of
whisky for the whole voyage. The tract on the northern shore, by Letterewe,
is scarcely passable at all, although it offered the best line for a road.
The distance by land from Kinloch Ewe to Slatadale is twelve miles, whence
the road is continued to Poolewe, at the head of Loch Ewe, an arm of the
sea, into which Loch Maree discharges its waters six miles farther on. From
Slatadale, also, a good carriage road deflects westward to the inn and
village of Gairloch, distant eight miles ; but it was intended chiefly as
the access to the proprietor's residence of Gairloch House, or, as some
English visitors dubbed it, Flowerdale, and to the parish church, from which
the road is continued, of the same good character (five miles more), to
Poolewe.
This road from Slatadale
passes through a succession of knolls and hills of mica slate, which possess
all the irregularity and tortuous windings so characteristic of countries
formed of that rock. It abounds, however, as at Kerrisdale, in beautiful and
sheltered dales or valleys, which in general greet the eye with long smiling
corn-fields and clumps of trees.
17. Flowerdale, or Gairloch
House, the seat of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart., the proprietor of Gairloch,
is a commodious old-fashioned chateau, built about a century ago, and is
surrounded by extensive and thriving plantations, its lawn also presenting
some ancient and large-sized oak, pine, ash, chesnut, and sycamore trees.
Behind the house, which stands on an elevated bank, sloping gently to the
south, from which a narrow cultivated valley proceeds on either side, a very
steep frontlet of rock, mantled in young wood, rises up to a considerable
height, forming a most imposing object, especially when seen from the sea ;
and from it several higher ridges branch o$, screening most effectually the
little valley from the northern and eastern winds. A lesser ridge protects
it also from the great power of the western sea breeze, which, besides the
ornament of a crown of pine trees, has been further enlivened by large belts
of furze or whins, a shrub quite foreign to this district, but which has
been successfully introduced. Altogether the woodland beauties of Gairloch
are quite unique in this remote corner, an earnest of what may be done with
the boundless waste around, which of late have been extensively brought into
culture upon a new cottar system.
Passing the sheltered bowers
and the small inn of Gairloch, the road immediately ushers us on a tract of
bent-covered sandbanks thrown up by the sea, and on the inner margin of
which stands the church of the parish, with the ruins of an older fane near
it, now used as a burying-ground, and which is overspread with rank bushes
of Atropa Belladonna, or deadly nightshade. In the offing the mountains of
Skye close in the horizon. Loch Ewe is lined with gray, rocky ridges of
elongated and ragged outline. A cultivated space skirts its upper extremity,
which is about a mile wide.
Poolewe is a small collection
of slated houses, and black straggling huts, along the southern bank of the
short, rapid river, which here discharges the waters of Loch _Margie into
the sea, each of them surrounded with a small patch of cultivated ground.
The place also possesses two shops, a high, gaunt, passable inn, some
storehouses for salmon and herring barrels, and a new and neat church, with
manse, half a mile up the river. The adjoining river is traversed in several
places by piles of stones, with cruive boxes fixed in them for catching
salmon, of which it yields an excellent fishery. Grouse and ptarmigan abound
in the mountains, and roe and red deer are also still numerous ; but the
hunting of them in these uncovered wilds is attended with unusual fatigue,
and requires much caution and dexterity. The inhabitants of this district
are numerous, but widely scattered. Yet, notwithstanding all their
disadvantages, their occasional visits to the south, and intercourse with
passing seamen, have introduced an extensive knowledge of the English
language among them, and no parish in the Highlands is better provided with
schools than that of Gairloch.
From Poolewe the packet from
Stornoway sails once a-week. If he keep to the mainland, the tourist will
find a country road, which leads over uninteresting moors to Loch Greinord,
and by some grand mountain scenery, and two ferries across Little and Big
Loch Broom to Ullapool ; but as there is no scenery by the way particularly
worthy of notice, and the walk is a very long one, it will be better for him
to proceed by boat from Loch Ewe or Greinord.
There is a remarkable
assemblage of mountains around Loch Fuin, three hours' walk north of Poolewe,
formed by the termination of several converging ranges into a semicircle of
stupendous precipices, which rise perpendicularly from the water. Should the
tourist's course be to the south, a long tedious tramp across a swampy
moorland will bring him from Gairloch to Shieldaig; or he may hire a boat
for about 15s. Either route is quite uninteresting and tiresome; and we
would recommend instead, that he return to Kinloch Ewe, and proceed thence
by Torridon.
3D. BRANCH ROAD FROM JEANTOWN
TO SHIELDAIG AND APPLECROSS.
18. We particularly recommend
at least part of this way to the notice of tourists. After ascending the
hill behind the village of Jeantown (on the ridge of which are the ruins of
an old dune or burgh), the road passes through a rocky and prettily-wooded
defile, and five miles off reaches Courthill on Loch Kishorn, the approaches
to which are vividly green, owing to the cropping out of a limestone bed ;
and then dividing into two, at the head of the loch, one branch proceeds to
Shieldaig (nine miles), and the other, turning westwards, passes up the
steep ascent of a splendid deer corry, which it scales at a height of nearly
1500 feet, by the Beallach—na-ba, or the cattle's pass, so called in
contradistinction to another pass farther north, the Beallach-na-hara, or
pass of the ladder, up which the deer themselves can but barely scramble;
and terminates (twelve miles on) at the Milntown and mansion-house of
Applecross. Both these roads were formed by direction of the parliamentary
commissioners; and the pedestrian can shorten that to Applecross nearly two
miles, should he pass when the tide is out, by crossing Loch Kishorn on a
set of large steppingstones immediately below the house of Courthill, which
are entirely visible when it is safe to take that way. The route onwards to
Shieldaig is low, moorish, and uninteresting, but skirted by several large
lochs or tarns, over which the high mountain of the Bein Bhain of Applecross
rises, with its nearest front scooped out into six or eight deer corries,
flanked by stupendous precipices. [See previous part of this Branch for
description of Shieldaig and Loch Torridon.] The other route should be
explored, at least to the summit level of the road, by every traveller,
however pressed for time, if he wishes not to miss one of the grandest
scenes in the Highlands. At present it is almost unknown; but it will
scarcely yield in sublime and savage characters to the celebrated gorge of
Glencoe. The road steals along the impending precipices on the north side of
the corry, which rise so steep that the water-courses have had to be paved
for many yards above and below, to prevent the materials being swept bodily
away ; and as it attains the upper rocky barriers which stretch across the
summit of the pass, it winds and twists along their crevices like a
cork-screw, and is upheld by enormous buttresses and breastworks of stone.
The cliffs into which the mountain on the opposite side is cut, are fully
six or eight hundred feet high, quite perpendicular, yet disposed in great
horizontal ledges like the courses of gigantic masonry ; while from the
whole being formed of bare, dark-red sandstone, unrelieved either by grass
or heather, and almost constantly shrouded in mist and rain, the scene is to
many quite appalling. The gusts of wind, accompanied often by sleet, which
blow down this pass, frequently render it difficult even for horses to keep
their footing, and occasionally the stoutest Highlanders are fain to cower
down among the stones for shelter. Deer and ptarmigan are often seen at the
road side, and when the summit of the corry is attained, the astonished
traveller finds himself on one of the higher acclivities of the Bein Bhain;
and if the top is clear, he imagines himself (though erroneously) at no
great distance from it. In fine weather, the view from this point is of
course extremely grand and extensive; and the descent thence to the
secluded, pastoral, and beautiful glen of Applecross, though steep and
tortuous, is ever welcomed by the tired, if not affrighted wayfarer.
Amidst the surrounding
bleakness and desolation of the sandstone mountains of this district, which
attain an elevation of upwards of 2000 feet, the bay and homesteads of
Applecross have ever been as an oasis in the desert; and hence they were
early fixed upon by the monks of Iona as a proper site for a supplementary
monastery, whence to assail the darkness of "roving clans and savage
barbarians" by the light of learning and religion. At its principal natural
haven, Camus-Terrach, or the Boat Cove, the land was claimed for the "Prince
of Peace," by the erection of a large stone cross, still standing; several
other crosses lined the approach towards the sacred buildings, and one
curiously carved, of a very antique pattern, occurs in the churchyard. "Fer-na-Comaraich,"
the "laird of the sanctuary, or of the land of safety," is the proprietor's
patronymic; and the modern name, Applecross, is founded on a tradition, that
every apple in the monk's garden was marked with the sign of the cross. The
breviary of Aberdeen relates, in accordance with what Bede writes of
Lindisfarne and the other churches in England, erected after the " Jfos &otorum,"
that the church of St. Maolbrubha, at Urquhart, on the western bank of Loch
Ness, was built of " hewn oak;" and according to the learned writer on "the
Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals," in the Quarterly Review for June 1849, "of
the same fashion, doubtless, was the more famous church which St. Maolbride
founded at Apple-cross, in the western wilds of Ross, in the year 673, and
which, a century later, gave an abbot to the great house of Banchor, in
Ireland." But three churches have been erected here since the Reformation;
the remains of the oldest are now used as the laird's cemetery, the next,
which was the first Presbyterian church, is used as a hay barn; and the
third, the subsisting one, is much too large for the congregation,
especially since the erection of the government church at Shieldaig. The
present incumbent is only the fifth Presbyterian minister of the parish; and
so obstinately attached were the rude people to their ancient Episcopal
faith, that, in March 1725, the presbytery of Gairloch (now Loch Carron)
held a meeting at Kilmorack, near Beauly, because, in the language of their
record, "they had been rabbled at Lochalsh on the 16th September, 1724," a
day appointed for a parochial visitation; and in 1731, Mr. Sage, the first
Presbyterian minister of Loch Carron, petitioned the presbytery to remove
him, as his life was often in danger from the lawlessness of the
inhabitants, and as he "despaired" of being of service in his cure, only one
family having been regular attendants on his ministry.
The house of Applecross is a
fine old and high chateau, and the plain about it not only bears good corn
crops, and some magnificent trees and young plantations, but in the garden
the finest dahlias, fuchsias, geraniums, and hyderangeas, flower, and are
left in the open ground all the year over; while, at the same time, in the
higher grounds, the vegetation is quite arctic, and the species few, and
even the hardy juniper becomes a short prostrate plant, instead of an
upright bush. In the low strath, the air feels always mild, though moist;
the light, in some places, is so subdued that the bat flies about at
noon-day; but nothing can surpass the beauty of the tints on the adjoining
hill-slopes, or the grandeur and variety of the sea-coast views, especially
of the mountains in the Isle of Skye.
A small inn will be found at
Milntown of, Applecross, from which the tourist can either return by the
Beallach, or northwards through the glen to Shieldaig, or by boat to Skye or
Loch Kishorn.
Now that the roads along the
west coast of Ross are being completed, we trust the local proprietors will
arrange for an immediate improvement of the inns. Large houses are not at
first required; a few small comfortable rooms, neatly papered, and with good
ventilation, but free of cross draughts, are what travellers want. And every
bedroom should have a Kinnaird stove grate, and every kitchen range should
be so constructed as to have a boiler with hot water always ready—a cheap
luxury for which the tourist is ever thankful. |
