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Wednesday 23rd November 2005 - Scoraig
Not written anything for a while... what have I been up to? Working mainly on the new house, I've helped with putting flooring in, cladding the walls, putting in windows, and various other bit and pieces. This was how the bungalow looked when I arrived - I should really have another picture of how it looks now too, shouldn't I?
The bungalow
I've also been spending a fair amount of time moving stones from around the croft down to in front of the bungalow, where a stone-waller is going to transform them into an attractive wall. The stone moving is being done using a combination of brute force and the quad & trailer. It's great fun driving a quad, much less so when you're also towing a trailer full of stones - slows things down a bit. Nonetheless, here is the mean machine pictured beside an old wall I'm tearing down.
Quad bike and trailer
Hugh and I visited Raasay a few weeks ago, to look over a windmill installation right up in the north of the island. It was great to visit somewhere we used to go on holiday when I was a kid, and it doesn't seem to have changed very much.
Brochel Castle
Looking across Arnish Bay, Raasay, towards Trotternish on Skye
A Short Essay on Life on Scoraig
Much of the time, life is fairly predictable. I'll get up between 7:00 and 8:30 - if 7:00, I'll do some yoga. Then breakfast and out to work either on the bungalow or moving stones. Lunch around 1pm, and back to work until the light is too poor to continue - around 4:30 at present. Dinner, check email, some TV or reading and so to bed. Might as well be earning some bucks programming back in Edinburgh? I don't think so. Being able to pause in my work and look up at Ben Ghobhlach or over to An Teallach, both now topped with snow...
An Teallach from Scoraig
...to be outside and experiencing the elements - that's what it's all about. We've just had three days straight of glorious weather; bitingly cold and frosty in the mornings, but without a cloud in the sky all day, with the sun barely rising before it trips west and sets behind Stattic Point, very much like this.
Sunset over Stattic Point
So far, so good. Every so often I'll take some time off to go for a wander, visit someone or just spend time reading. On Sunday afternoons I go to a life drawing class at the secondary school. This is a 6-week course and is great fun, giving me a chance and the structure to devote some time to drawing. Taking a drawing class is something I've always thought about whilst in Edinburgh, and never felt I had the time to do - this is the ideal opportunity!
However, life here is still much more unpredictable than in Edinburgh. Ferrying is a task that crops up fairly often, unsurprisingly. A couple of days ago, Hugh had a delivery of timber to pick up from the other side of the loch.
The jetty at Badluchrach, looking back towards Scoraig, with Ben More Coigach in the background.
The boat we were using to ferry this timber wasn't huge, but it was more or less flat calm, and the loading guidelines for these things are just ... guidelines, after all. Smooth sailing, we made it back across with the wood!
Timber ready for unloading onto the Scoraig jetty
(There were three of us in this boat on the way back, I can't actually remember how we fitted in, doesn't look like there's room...)
I've had a shot of steering the boat a couple of times. Coming into the jetty is tricky as the outboard motor is controlled with a twist grip throttle. Controlling direction and speed all with one hand can get a bit confusing - no damage done yet though.
A while ago, some guys bought 8 piglets to fatten up for eating next Spring. They went to pick them up from Lairg on 5th November. At about 4pm we heard that the van with the pigs in it had slipped off the pier at Badluchrach - both the van and pigs were eventually rescued, but one of the piglets drowned in the process. Given the van was floating around for 15 minutes, that's probably not bad going. They'd made it over to Scoraig and bedded-in 5 of the pigs. One was still suffering badly from the experience, shivering and very cold, so it was brought into the house and put in a cardboard box in front of the Raeburn. The second most poorly piglet was also brought in, and after sparking up a bit they were allowed out and given the run of the kitchen - a freedom which was curtailed as soon as they started shitting on the floor. All seven are now happily frolicking around their pen, and run up with excited grunts when I approach. As I don't produce any food, they soon lose interest and return to poking around in the mud.
Piglets turning grass into mud
Last weekend there was a meeting to discuss the possiblity of a community buy-out of the Scoraig peninsula. A guy from the Community Land Unit had come over, and about 16 folk assembled. However, there doesn't appear to be a great deal of support for the idea. Scoraig, unlike other some places, enjoys a benevolent laird who lets everyone just get on with whatever they want.
Scoraig is no hippy idyll. It is not an 'intentional community', but it is, I think, very much a community. Where necessary, neighbours and friends come together to help each other. At the same time, there are the usual disputes and disagreements to keep things interesting and gossip flowing. Many people have come here to live a certain kind of lifestyle; one which is more self-sufficient than most, and to a great extent free from bureaucratic interference. However, pragmatism is the order of the day - boatloads of supermarket shopping, bags of coal, and so on are not uncommon sights. There's plenty of work to do, things to fix, and not all of it gets done, but it's no big deal. It's fascinating, and only a little frustrating, and I don't think I'll want to leave when the time comes.
There's blizzards forecast for tomorrow, should be interesting. It's not all precipitation though - who'd have thought you could grow grapes at this latitude?
Grapes growing in the conservatory
Tuesday 25th October 2005 - Scoraig
Yesterday I left Rubha Phoil on Skye to travel to Scoraig in Wester Ross, to work and stay with Hugh Piggott. Having arranged to meet up with Hugh in Inverness, I was planning to hitch. Luckily Sandy managed to get me a lift with one of her friends all the way to Inverness, which was very convenient.
Like Knoydart, Scoraig is a mainland peninsula without road access, so you can either walk in or use a boat. Unlike Knoydart, Scoraig doesn't even have an 'official' ferry. Residents commonly have a wee boat with an outboard motor that carries them, their shopping, family, equipment, rubbish etc over the one mile crossing. Two boats are strapped together to transport vehicles across.
So yesterday evening, around 7:30pm, Hugh and I got to the jetty opposite Scoraig. Earlier an easterly gale had been blowing down the loch (Little Loch Broom), which would have meant a 5-mile walk in with as much stuff as we could carry. Fortunately the wind had died down, but it was still a slightly unsettling experience making the crossing in fairly choppy waters in near darkness. Particularly as Hugh's boat is an aluminium 16-footer with a 5-horsepower outboard...
The boat is simply beached on the pebble shores on either side of the loch. It has to be hauled down to the water and moored to the jetty whilst loaded. Given that the conditions weren't perfect for crossing, we didn't overload the boat, so some shopping and most of our luggage was left in the car. This was all done in wind and rain and with torches gripped in our teeth! We were met on the other side with a quad bike. After we'd beached the boat, the quad is used to drag it up past high tide. Five minutes up the track on the back of the quad and we were indoors and warm and dry again.
Hugh & Jytte's house, an old croft house extended in almost every direction
The garden
Today, we returned to the other side of the loch to pick up the rest of our stuff. On the way back I got to steer the boat - after the crossing last night, it was nice to go over in calm, sunny conditions. Spent the rest of the day collecting seaweed and spreading it over turned-over earth in the garden, to mulch down in readiness for next year's planting.
Turned-over earth in foreground with seaweed covering the earth behind
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Now returning to the remainder of my time on Skye at Rubha Phoil. Over the 11 days I spent at the Ru I also coppiced some willow and broom, primarily to allow more light into a herb-growing area. New shoots from the coppiced willow will be woven into a living fence and archway. I visited the Ardvasar community polytunnel and admired the courgettes, some of which must have been around 5 inches in diameter and about a foot long. I also learnt some plumbing and generally helped-out around the place. I had a day off to visit the point of Sleat - great views of Eigg and Rhum.
Looking to the Isle of Eigg from the Point of Sleat
Sandy and I also had a trip to Aberfeldy last Thursday. Sandy was attending the launch of a gardening book which featured the Ru, and it was an opportunity to visit Jacqui Hazzard's Herbalist's Garden in Pitnacree. We stayed there on Thursday night, and all three of us visited Culdees on Loch Tay on the Friday. Maryse at Culdees made us feel very welcome, with coffee and lunch, and we had a tour of the site taking in the friendly goats and teepees.
One of Jacqui's scarecrows in the morning mist
On the way back to Skye, we stopped off to see the Fortingall Yew. It is reckoned to be 5000 years old, making it the oldest living vegetation in the world. Difficult to get a decent photo as it's heavily protected by a wall and fence. We took the Schiehallion road to Kinloch Rannoch, and then back onto the A9 past the Loch Errochty reservoir.
Loch Errochty reservoir
Beautiful scenery in this area, and the sun setting as we headed towards Spean Bridge was stunning.
Horses in a misty glen near Dalwhinnie
Sun setting over misty glen