The Loch Maree road

I'm a bit OCD about knowing the dates of things. This isn't a new tendency, either, for I recently discovered a clutch of letters I received in response to enquiries I'd written in 1984 (before Mr Google was even a twinkle in his parents' eye) to various bodies seeking information about the dates of certain projects in Wester Ross. 

There's one from the Hydro Board about hydro-electric schemes and another from Howard Doris on the chronology of oil platform construction at Kishorn. There's also a letter from Highland Regional Council about the dates of certain road improvements. Unfortunately, they couldn't supply any dates for some phases of the Loch Maree and North Applecross roads before 1975 (when HRC came into existence in succession to Ross & Cromarty County Council) but they helpfully suggested I contact Mr Hector MacLeod, of Strath, Gairloch, retired roads supervisor, who would have "intimate detailed knowledge of roadworks from the early 1930s". And there's a reply from Mr MacLeod, in his beautiful handwriting, with the requested details.

Nor is this information entirely useless. A year or two ago, I was contacted by someone who'd seen one of my photos on Flickr of the road along Loch Maree (the A832) which had a caption alluding to its phased reconstruction in the 1970s. He wanted to know if I could supply the date of the works on a certain section of the road because he was a geologist and it was important to him to know for exactly how long a specimen of rock in his possession which had been blasted out by the roadworks had been oxidising (or something like that!) in the sunlight. And as it happened, I was able to the answer his question from the information so kindly supplied by Hector MacLeod 35 years ago! So, and in the interests of the advancement of science, it's perhaps time to lay out the whole of this arcane knowledge for the benefit of posterity. 

Look at the map below (click to enlarge). From A to B (Kinlochewe to about a mile west of Bridge of Grudie), the road was rebuilt (i.e. upgraded from single to double track) between summer 1966 and August 1972 by Ross & Cromarty County Council's direct labour. I think I'm right in saying (but anyone with local knowledge can correct me) that the work started at Kinlochewe (point A) and went northwards. I also recall this stretch being known locally as "MacIlhinny's Highway", I assume in memory of an Irish member of the labour force but, again, local knowledge can correct me.

From B to C, the road was built between January 1973 and October 1974 by R J McLeod (Glasgow), contractors.

From D (Lochmaree Hotel) to E (about 200 yards before Victoria Falls), the road was built between November 1974 and April 1976 by K Stewart (Strathpeffer), contractors.

From C to D (Lochmaree Hotel), the road was built between October 1978 and July 1980, also by Stewarts. Note, I'm not sure if the road directly in front of the hotel was part of the D-E project in 1974-76 or part of the C-D project in 1978-80: I think the latter but, as usual happy to be corrected.

The stretch from E (Victoria Falls) west to F (the top of Slattadale) postdates my enquiries in the 1980s but was carried out in the early 90s (anyone know the exact year?) also by Stewarts.

For the rest of this post, we'll do a photographic tour of the old Loch Maree road from my own photos and postcard collection starting at Kinlochewe and going west towards Gairloch. Click the images to enlarge and under some of the old pictures, you can click a link through to the equivalent view today on Google Streetview. First, though, a bit of history. 

The road from Kinlochewe to Slattadale was first built in the late 1840s as part of a scheme to provide employment to local people left destitute by the potato famine of the mid 1840s. Half of the cost (£2,527:8s:6d) was provided by the Edinburgh Destitution Board (from charitable donations raised in southern Scotland and abroad) and the other half by Gairloch Estate as the local landowner. (More about that here. Other roads in Wester Ross were built on this basis around the same time, including those from Kerrysdale Bridge to Badachro on south side of Loch Gairloch (B8056) and from Dundonnell to Braemore (A832), the latter still being known as the Destitution Road today.) 

Prior to the 1840s, there had been no road capable of taking wheeled traffic along the side of Loch Maree and the usual mode of transport was by boat along the loch from a pier at a point about half a mile from its head called Rubha an Fhamhair - think I've spelt that right! It's Gaelic for Giant's Point and is anglicised by the Ordnance Survey to Rhu Noa. Even after the road had been built, travel along the loch by steamer was still possible until 1911 when it was finally eclipsed by road travel with the advent of the internal combustion engine (further blog post about the Loch Maree Steamer to come soon). Anyway, here's the old road going past Rhu Noa with the remains of the steamer pier still visible:-

The A832 at Rhu Noa. Same view today here

From Rhu Noa to where the road turns away from the loch to Bridge of Grudie, the old single track road ran on a different alignment from the current road built in the late 60s/early 70s. It was lower and closer to the shore and for long stretches was carried on retaining walls built out into the loch. These are still there although now in badly deteriorating condition. But they're beautiful works of art and I don't know why they're not protected as listed buildings or something and maintained to create an alternative cycle path/walkway along the lochside. These walls were one of the first things I made a beeline for to photograph when I got my first camera in 1984:-

 

     

Below is the same stretch of road as the last photo when it was still in use. Note the same pine tree! The current road is at about the level of the top of the bank on the right in these views.

 

 

That last photo suggests that this stretch of the old road winding along the shore carried out on retaining walls was called "The Pass" - I didn't know that. Totally unsuitable for 20th century tourist traffic so you can see how this was an early candidate for upgrading in the 1960s when most of the rest of the A832 to Gairloch west from Garve remained single track for many more years after. Below is a photo of similar retaining walls still in use today beside Loch Shieldaig on the road from Kerrysdale Bridge along the south side of Loch Gairloch. These were built at the same time (late 1840s) as the ones on the Loch Maree road:-

 

Back beside Loch Maree, further north, at Bridge of Grudie, a new road bridge over the River Grudie was built when the road was reconstructed around 1970 but the old bridge was left standing beside it. I always used to be puzzled by the old bridge in that, on its east (Kinlochewe) side, it seemed to be hard up against a rock face involving the road in a very sharp right turn immediately you'd crossed the bridge. I guess that was due to the exigencies of the only available bit of solid rock to foot the bridge on. You can see this here and on the 1902 Ordnance Survey Six Inch Map:-

 

Picture credit: National Library of Scotland

Below are the two bridges with the old one in the foreground:-

Below is looking back (east towards Kinlochewe) from Bridge of Grudie across Loch Maree to Slioch.

 

And here's a similar view taken in the 1960s when the road was still single track:-

 

Picture credit: Tim Hayman

And here's the approach to the old bridge viewed from the west (towards Kinlochewe):-

 

Same view today here

A few hundred yards after Bridge of Grudie continuing west in the direction of Gairloch, the new road diverges (here) from the route of the old road to follow a line closer to the loch. The old road remains clearly traceable for about two miles and can be walked along.

 

The old and new roads west of Bridge of Grudie. The passing places on the old road are still clearly visible.

Here's a selection of views between Bridge of Grudie and the Lochmaree Hotel ordered roughly south to north. In the first one, I didn't know they had the big passing place signs with PASSING PLACE written on them as early as when this card was posted in 1970:-

Same view today here

Next are two pictures I took on the old road looking south in 1984. Note the old telegraph poles - you don't see them anymore:-

 

 

In the picture below, which is at point C on the map above, the new road now describes a straighter line nearer the loch bypassing the curve:-

 

Same position on the new road here

And the next picture is just about a couple of hundred yards further on in the direction of the Lochmaree Hotel. I remember a particularly nasty tourist traffic snarl up at exactly this spot in the mid-70s before this stretch was improved involving irate caravaners shouting at each other and one gentleman even trying to rock my parents' trailer with boat thereon sideways off the road leading to some choice language from my father. [EDIT 21/2/21 - see the Addendum at the end of this post for a link to footage of this stretch of the old road.] The new road is now on a line further away from the viewpoint:-

 

Same position on the new road here

Next, just a mile or so further on, here's the Lochmaree Hotel when the old single track road used to run right past its front door. The new road is realigned about a hundred yards to the left:-

Equivalent view on the new road here

Here's a little stretch of the old road just before the hotel looking back east in the direction of Kinlochewe I photographed in 1984:-

Next, a couple of shots of the old road between the hotel and Victoria Falls:-

Approximately the same position today here

Next are two shots I took in 1984 of where the new road then ended just before Victoria Falls until it was continued on up Slattadale in the early 90s:-

 

Next is Garbhaig (pronounced GARA-vaig, I believe) Bridge beside the Victoria Falls in 1984 when it was still on the main road. I think the bridge still stands but is now bypassed since the road up Slattadale was improved in the early 90s.

And next, a couple of hundred yards past the bridge looking back towards it in 1984:-

Same view today here

Next, a view further up Slattadale going towards Gairloch about a mile west of Garbhaig Bridge in the 1980s when the road was still single track. This is looking east back down the hill in the direction of Kinlochewe:-

Same view today here

Compare with the postcard view below from approximately the same position before the trees had been planted. Most of these trees have since been felled and the views over Loch Maree have been opened up again.

And finally, looking up Slattadale (west towards Gairloch) near the top of the hill in the 1980s when the road was still single track:-
 

Same view today here

Well, I hope you enjoyed that retrospective drive along Loch Maree. I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to look through every single photo of it I've got in my archive (and weed out some of the many duplicates!) If anyone can add anything or make any corrections, please leave a comment.

Addendum 21/2/21

I'm grateful to Alex Gray for drawing my attention to this film in the National Library of Scotland's Moving Image Archive. It's amateur footage in December 1939 of a Bofors anti-aircraft gunnery unit going from the east along the A832 to the naval base at Loch Ewe. At 17.14 is exactly the stretch of the old road along Loch Maree between the Hotel and Bridge of Grudie I referred to where I remember a snarl up of tourist traffic in the mid 1970s (inevitably rather grainy still from the film below):-

Here are the various places seen in the film so far as I could identify them:-

Going west:-

03.44 - Loch Garve

04.10 - approaching Grudie Bridge 

04.35 - Achnasheen

05.05 - Loch a' Chroisg (note the old style passing place signs)

05.25 - top of Glen Docherty

06.17 - Loch Maree

06.37 - Loch a' Chroisg again

06.51 - Rhu Noa, Loch Maree

07.32 - where the truck is off the road is between Inverewe and Tournaig - about here  

09.37-15.37 - Loch Ewe between Tournaig and Aultbea

Going back east:-

15.48 - Loch Maree at Tollie

16.00 - Loch Tollie

16.10 - coming down the hill into Gairloch

16.24 - approaching Kerry Bridge

16.26 - Glen Kerry

16.49 - going down Slattadale

from here to 18.15 - going along Loch Maree

18.17 - top of Glen Docherty??