Back to the west coast now the worst of the rain has past, we are going to make the most of it unless the horizontal rain and zero visibility returns again.
We pick up more or less where we left off on our coastal exploration of Wester Ross. With vies across the the mountains of An Teallach we head along the narrow roads on the northern shore of Little Loch Broom to the community of Badrallach. We have to wait for aggregate lorries delivering their loads to a house before we can pass, as there is no room for big vehicles to pass on this wafer thing strip of tarmac.
We had intended this to be a walk over Beinn Ghobhlach, that is until we read about the community of Scoraig, isolated by 3 miles of footpath or the half mile crossing of the Loch. They have no mains power or water, just what they can capture for themselves. About 70 people in 25 houses live as crofters, make their own wind turbines for power and capture water that runs of the hills.
A bit like Findhorn, the architectural styles are idiosyncratic but I’m this case, further limited by the logistics of getting building materials across the Loch. Fortunately there is plenty of natural stone available on the land which gets put to good use.
A photo display in the tiny lighthouse depicts the length they go to to get supplies across the Loch, including cars balanced precariously on top of two rowing boats strapped together.
A very interesting place and interesting to see how, when constrained by nature, we can be quite creative in how we live.
