Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire Part 48

At the lower end of Loch Tollie there was formerly a weir or dam in connection with a mill far down the burn which flows from the loch, and this kept the water of the loch at a higher level than it now stands at.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LETH CHREAG, TOLLIE.]

After leaving Loch Tollie we can easily trace the old road from Slatadale winding down the glen behind Craig Tollie. Shortly before it joins the road we are travelling it is overshadowed by a bold crag, called Leth Chreag (_see ill.u.s.tration_), on the opposite side of the burn. The name means the "half rock," and refers to the sheer aspect (as if half had been broken off) of the face of the rock towards the burn.

The first view of the lower end of Loch Maree now comes in sight, with the graceful form of Beinn Aridh Charr rising above it. A peak close to the summit of this mountain bears the name of Spidean Moirich, or "Martha's peak." It is said that a woman of that name having climbed this peak sat down and began winding thread on her spindle. The spindle fell from her hand down the steep rocks to the north-east. Martha tried to recover the spindle, but fell over the rock and was killed. Hence the name. To the left of Beinn Aridh Charr are the spurs of Beinn a Chaisgean Mor, called Scuir a Laocainn and Scuir na Feart, with the Maighdean to the right. Reaching the point where the branch road leads down to Tollie pier, a magnificent view of Loch Maree presents itself to the eye. The whole length of the loch, and Glen Dochartie beyond it, are in sight. On any tolerably fine day the road up Glen Dochartie is plainly seen at a distance of not less than fifteen to sixteen miles, a proof of the wonderful clearness of the northern atmosphere. Beyond Glen Dochartie in the extreme distance are peaks, thirty miles away, of mountains in the Monar forest, which retain some snow long after it has disappeared from the mountains of Loch Maree. Half-way up Loch Maree is seen Isle Maree, with its grove of tall trees. The immediate foreground is softened by the natural woods of birch, oak, and rowan round the bases of Craig Tollie and of the lower hills on the east side of Tollie farm. This view of Loch Maree has formed the subject of celebrated pictures by the late Horatio M'Culloch, Mr H. W. B. Davis, R.A., Mr A.

W. Weedon, and other well-known artists. The road so far is the same as that which is traversed by the carriages or "machines" conveying voyageurs to the Loch Maree steamer. For our present purpose we shall suppose the tourist to be proceeding towards Poolewe.

The road now turns abruptly to the left, and rapidly descends the hill called Croft Brae. The present road is a great improvement upon the old one, which takes a higher course and has a steeper incline. The old road went straight down to the banks of the Ewe, but our way proceeds from the foot of the hill along level ground a little above the river. The small hamlet or village here is properly called Croft of Tollie, misspelt in the Old Statistical Account "Croft of Jolly," the last word being decidedly a _lucus a non lucendo_. This hamlet is usually called Croft. A short bit of road to the right leads to the landing-place at the lower extremity of the navigable part of the River Ewe, called Ceann a Chro, or Cruive End, _i.e._ the head or end of the cruive (for taking salmon), which formerly spanned the river just below. At Cruive End is a thatched house called "The still," occupied rent free by several poor widows. It was originally built for a whisky distillery. Close to Cruive End there formerly stood a small thatched church or place of worship (see pages 70 and 99), which was used in the memory of old people now living, _i.e._ up to about 1826. All traces of it have now disappeared.

On the left of the high road, two hundred yards beyond Cruive End, is the green hillock called "The hill of evil counsel," where Allan Macleod, who lived in the island of Loch Tollie (see page 25), was murdered by his brothers.

Looking back there are beautiful views of the upper reaches of the river Ewe winding through low wooded hills, which may be called "the Trossachs of Loch Maree," and a distant peep of the loch itself heightens the charm of the view.

Further on to the right is the Poolewe manse, well placed on a brow overlooking the river. To the left is the Poolewe post and telegraph office, formerly a school.

The group of houses a little further on to the left is called Mossbank.

The tallest house (Mrs Morrison) is a lodging-house. The next is Mossbank Cottage, occupied by Dr M'Ewen; it has a fruitful walled garden. Another house, of the usual local type, is occupied by John Mackenzie (Iain Glas), the present water-bailiff of the river. In a cottage a little further on lives Finlay M'Kinnon, the Poolewe artist (Part II., chap. xxiv.). We now enter the village of

POOLEWE.

It is not a beautiful spot, but it perhaps gives one more the idea of a village than some other more scattered places in Gairloch parish. Mr H.

F. Wilson, of Cambridge, has well described Poolewe, in his racy ode, dated August 1885, and ent.i.tled "Carmen Pooleviense." After speaking of the Ewe, he says you may see,--

"Just where that river feels the brine, A bridge, a pool, a whitewash'd line Of unpretentious cottages, Differing in sizes and degrees; A kirk, too ample in extent To house the shrunk 'Establishment;'

An inn, our 'guard-room,' to command Wide-reaching view by sea and land; A windy green, a sandy cliff, A flag-staff standing stark and stiff; Such is our p????, proud to be Compact, a?a??a??t?t?."

Poolewe was formerly called Clive, and, according to the retour of 1638 (page 61), was once "a burgh of barony." There are three merchants'

shops in the village street, also (on the left) the salmon depot or boiling-house of Mr A. P. Hogarth, of Aberdeen, the lessee of the salmon-fishings on the extensive sea coast of Gairloch. It is managed by Alexander Mutch, of Aberdeen, who generally arrives at Poolewe early in April and remains until September.

The first building on the right is the Poolewe Public Hall, which though but a small room suffices for the wants of the place (see Part IV., chap. i.).

On the same side at the further end of the village street is the Established church (Church of Scotland), and on the right is the Poolewe Inn or Hotel, kept by Mr A. Maclennan. Compared with the Gairloch, Loch Maree, and Kenlochewe hotels, it yields but humble accommodation. Some improvements are being effected, and I believe even ladies find the house comfortable enough. Mr Maclennan carries on a posting business.

Boats can be hired for sea-fishing in Loch Ewe, and trout-fishing can generally be had on some fresh-water lochs.

On the flat plain behind and to the south of Poolewe and Moss Bank (called Bac Dubh), a large market, called the Feill Iudha, or "ewe market" (page 104), was held for generations, and was discontinued about 1720.

Mr Macbrayne's large steamers call at Poolewe once a fortnight. A jetty and storehouse, where goods are landed and kept dry, have recently been provided just below Poolewe church. There are considerable quant.i.ties of clayband and hemat.i.te iron ores to be seen both here and nearer Poolewe bridge,--evidences of those ores having been landed here (see page 89).

The Poolewe Free Church meeting-house, and the smithy, with a number of dwellings, are on the other side of the river. They are, properly speaking, in Londubh.

At the other side of the mouth of the river is Pool House, formerly the Londubh Inn. It has been enlarged and improved by Sir Thomas Edwards Moss, Bart., who has a lease of it with some shootings. He has erected a stable near the east end of Poolewe bridge, where the smithy formerly stood.

The hamlet or township of Londubh, including all the dwellings and buildings on the east side of the lower part of the River Ewe, has since the erection of Poolewe bridge become virtually a part of Poolewe. The name Londubh signifies "the black bog." I have heard a native suggest that the name of the metropolis of Great Britain is pure Gaelic, for the Gaelic for a brown bog (which the Strand is said to have originally been) is just Lon-donn!

Many of the houses in Londubh are on a flat hidden by the old sea terrace, and are therefore scarcely visible from the main road. Londubh, or Baile na h' Eaglais, was formerly called Inverewe, a name now only applied to Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie's house opposite. The most conspicuous house in Londubh is that called Kirkton House, a little above the road skirting Loch Ewe beyond Pool House. Londubh was formerly part of the Kernsary estate, and this house, where James Mackenzie, so often quoted in these pages, now lives, was then the home of the proprietors of Kernsary. Close to it is the old Inverewe burial-ground. A wall was built round it a few years ago. Here is the burial-place of the Kernsary family, formed out of the ancient church or chapel (page 101) which in old days occupied the site.

Chapter VII.

POOLEWE TO AULTBEA.

Leaving Poolewe we follow the county road over Poolewe bridge, behind Pool House, and along the sh.o.r.e of the bay that forms the head of Loch Ewe. Notice the picturesque pool in which the River Ewe joins Loch Ewe, so much finer than the usual muddy estuary of an east coast river.

After pa.s.sing on the right the Londubh or Inverewe burial-ground and the home of James Mackenzie at Kirkton (referred to in the last chapter), we cross a small burn. This forms the march or boundary between the estates of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, and his half-brother Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie of Inverewe. Since the parish of Gairloch was entered at Luibmhor, near the west end of Loch Rosque, we have been on the territory of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie.

On the right is Srondubh, with a few trees, and by it the farm buildings of the home farm in connection with Inverewe House. The road skirts along well cultivated arable land until the Inverewe plantations are reached.

Inverewe House was erected by Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie in 1865. It is beautifully situated in a northern recess of the bay at the head of Loch Ewe, in the shelter of a rocky headland called Ploc-ard. The house has a Highland character; it faces due south, and commands a fine view of Beinn Aridh Charr. To the south the summits of the distant Gairloch mountains and the rocky ranges of Craig Tollie and Cliff Hill, with the mouth of the River Ewe and the bay at the head, of Loch Ewe in the foreground, form an enchanting picture. From the village of Poolewe the house--surrounded as it is with planted woods now well grown--is a pleasing object. There are walks in these woods, and separate sea-bathing places for ladies and gentlemen. There is the best anchorage for yachts of the largest size close to the house.

The Inverewe gardens are wonderfully attractive, yielding as they do exquisite flowers nearly all the year round. The following remarks about these gardens are from one of a series of letters from the Highlands which appeared in the _Times_ in the autumn of 1883:--

"Thanks to genial winters, from the softening influence of the Gulf Stream, ornamental gardening richly repays one in those sheltered situations that slope to the sea-arms. The most enchanting spot in that way which I have seen is the garden of Inverewe, on Loch Ewe, rented at present by Lord Fitzwilliam. The garden was laid out by the proprietor, Mr Osgood Mackenzie, whose taste must be as unimpeachable as his knowledge of flowers. The gardens form a terraced amphitheatre, shelving gently towards the Loch, and backed up by the hanging woods, which have only been recently planted. Fruit-trees, but a very few years old, are already loaded with plums, pears, &c. The low stone walls that front the earth-banks are covered with many of the rarer creepers, some of them almost semi-tropical, with luxuriant myrtles just bursting into flower, and with cl.u.s.ters of roses of wonderful size. But what is most remarkable is the marvellous vividness of the colours in such brightly tinted flowers as crimson roses and scarlet gladioli. The warm damp seems to give a brilliancy to the tints which I have never seen either in England or in southern Europe."

The highroad now takes an easterly course, and, pa.s.sing young plantations, soon comes in sight of Loch-nan-Dailthean. Here is Tournaig, the residence of the Dowager Lady Mackenzie of Gairloch, with its beautiful little garden, described in the _Times_ letter just quoted, as follows:--

"Even more noteworthy, perhaps, is the less pretentious garden at Mr Mackenzie's pretty cottage of Tournaig, situate two miles inland. There, a mere pit in the heather, which must have originally resembled a stone quarry, has been turned, chiefly by blasting, into a little fairyland of leafy luxuriance and gorgeous colouring, though where the plants find soil to strike their roots is a puzzle. As for the cabbages, in their swelling proportions they are rather like balloons than ordinary vegetables. And it must be a piquant experience to stroll of a morning among flower-beds that recall the beauties of Bellagio or the Isola Bella, and afterwards to go out ptarmigan shooting or deer-stalking on some of the most storm-beaten hills in the whole breadth of the Highlands."

[Ill.u.s.tration: DUNAN ON LOCH TOURNAIG.]

About half a mile beyond the head of Loch nan Dailthean, and a mile south from Tournaig, is the pretty natural wood called Coille Aigeascaig, whose charms are celebrated in Alexander Cameron's song, given in Part II., chap. xxiii.

There is a small cave among the hills two miles due east from Tournaig.

It is called Uamh Mhic 'ille Rhiabhaich, or "the cave of Mac Gille Riabhaich." The cave is close to a loch bearing the same name, on which are two small islands, one of which seems to have been a stronghold. An account of Mac Gille Riabhaich, who lived in this cave, is given in Part I., chap. viii.

In one of the fields at Tournaig is a place where the natives in the old days used to bleed living cattle landed here from the Hebrides (Part II., chap. viii.).

At Tournaig the road bends to the left, and pa.s.ses the Tournaig farm buildings, where lives Alexander Cameron, the farm manager, who is a Gaelic poet (Part II., chap. xxiii.). The branch of Loch Ewe which approaches Tournaig is called Loch Tournaig.

In Loch Tournaig is a small peninsular headland, on the north side of the Inverewe Point called the Dunan (_see ill.u.s.tration_). This headland is insulated at high spring-tides. On it a dun, or fort, is said to have formerly stood, but tradition does not say who held it. There are many loose stones on the top, though no traces of walls or foundations can be found. The strongest evidence that this was the site of a fort or other similar place, is found in the large and regularly placed stepping-stones which connect it with the mainland. The now superfluous height of these stones seems to point to their having been placed there when the sea was at a higher level.

From Loch Tournaig the road ascends, and has a devious and rather tedious course, until Drumchork is reached. At one point on the way is a peep of the well-known form of the Storr rock in Skye; and further on a burn is crossed, which is the march in this direction between the estates of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie and Mrs Liot Bankes. The western sh.o.r.e of Loch Ewe is well seen, with its townships of crofts. Loch Ewe is a fine expanse of water, opening due north to the Atlantic. Isle Ewe soon comes fully in view, with its little settlement towards the nearer end; whilst in the far distance may be seen, beyond the north-eastern extremity of the North Point and above the mouth of Loch Ewe, the northern parts of the Long Island, or at least of that part which is in the county of Ross, and is called "the Lews." Sometimes the three summits behind Stornoway may be distinctly discerned.

Drumchork, which is nearly seven miles from Poolewe, comprises a commodious shooting-lodge some way up the hillside (now leased by Mr C.

E. Johnston), and nearer the road, on the right-hand side, a square of farm buildings, erected about 1880 on the site of the old house of Drumchork. This place, as well as the village of Aultbea, and the territory on both sides of the following road, including the whole of the Green Stone Point (except Mellon Charles, which is Sir Kenneth's), is the property of Mrs Liot Bankes. Her estate extends westward from here to a burn on Slioch, where it marches with Sir Kenneth's estate.

Towards the north her property is bounded by the sea, and then by the Meikle Gruinard river; thus it extends beyond the parish of Gairloch; it may be said to include all the parts of the parish up to Slioch lying to the north-east of Loch Maree, the River Ewe, and Loch Ewe, except Mellon Charles and the Inveran beat belonging to Sir Kenneth, and except the estate of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie. The latter extends northwards and eastwards to Fionn Loch and the summit of Beinn Aridh Charr. The road turns off, to the left, just below Drumchork, to the village of

AULTBEA.

This village comprises an inn and post-office, and at some distance a large Free church and manse, with a stable where horses that have brought people from a distance to attend church can be put up. It may be said to comprise the hamlets or townships of Aultbea, Badfearn, Tighnafaoilinn, and Cuilchonich, which cover about a square mile.

The name Aultbea signifies "the birch burn," but there are not many birches there now. The burn runs into the sea close behind the inn. The county road at present terminates here. The bay is formed by the Point of Aird, the channel between which and Isle Ewe is barely half a mile across, and affords safe anchorage. Here stands Aird House, occupied by Mr Muir. It was erected by the Mackenzies of Gruinard, and was the residence of that family for some time.

The inn is old-fashioned, but sufficient for bachelors who do not object to roughing it a little. The landlord, Mr Forbes, is most civil and obliging; and excellent angling, both in Loch Ewe and on some good fresh-water lochs, can be had by those staying at the inn. Mr Forbes can also provide a good horse and trap, and can arrange for the voyage from Laide to Ullapool suggested in Part IV., chap, ii., as a mode of exit from Gairloch. The hand-line fishing accessible from Aultbea, and the lythe trolling round the north end of Isle Ewe, are probably the best in Gairloch waters.