The A87 #5 - Kinloch Hourn

It's never been on the A87, of course, but it would be rude to pass through Tomdoun (which used to be on the A87) without nipping along to Kinloch Hourn for a quick look.

approaching Kinloch Hourn - Google Streetview

The whole 31 miles from Invergarry to Kinloch Hourn was one of the first roads built by the Highland Roads & Bridges Commission, on their usual basis of 50% state funding and 50% by local landowners, between 1805-12. The population of Glen Garry is sparse enough as far as Loch Quoich but after that, there's nothing (Glenquoich Lodge having been flooded by the Hydro Board in the mid-1950s as described in this post) until you get to Kinloch Hourn itself and it's just another lodge, a farm and a few estate workers' cottages - you can go for a virtual walk round here. So why did the HRBC build a road to nowhere? Have a look at the map below:-

 

A key plank of the HRBC's strategy was to encourage the herring fishing industry by linking the Great Glen and the east coast road network north of Inverness with what were described in the 1803 report by the engineer Thomas Telford on the industrial opportunities of the north west Highlands that led to the creation of the HRBC (see here) as "the lochs at the back of Skye" - that is Lochs Torridon, Carron, Alsh, Duich, Hourn and Nevis - where the herring were most plentiful. Hence why it built the roads coloured red on the map and this led to the creation (or expansion) of fishing villages like Shieldaig, Jeantown (called Lochcarron today), Plockton, Dornie & Bundalloch and Arisaig.

Fishing boats on Loch Hourn in 1815 by William Daniell

But why, considering Loch Hourn was one of the most prolific herring fisheries, did nothing happen at Kinloch Hourn? Well, this is just an educated guess but I think it's because the terminus of the HRBC's road at the head of the loch was too far inland - it was just too far from the fishing grounds for the fishermen to sail home to and land their catches when there were more conveniently sited spots like Shieldaig and Plockton etc. It's perhaps significant in this respect that the fishing village which did emerge on Loch Hourn - Arnisdale (which is strictly two neighbouring villages called Camusbane and Corran) - is on the outer part of the loch. HRBC plans to establish "boating piers" at Kinloch Hourn came to nothing.

 

Arnisdale with Corran top left and Camusbane bottom right. This is the part of Loch Hourn in the Daniell print above - photo credit: StephenH16

 

The HRBC's original proposal had been to continue the road past Kinloch Hourn along the north shore of the loch to Kyle Rhea which, at that time, was the principal crossing to Skye rather than Kyle Akin. But that was soon abandoned in favour of another route to Kyle Rhea from Invermoriston via Cluanie, Glen Shiel, Shiel Bridge (today's A87) and the Mam Ratagan plus a link to the Glen Garry road between Cluanie and Tomdoun. That's because these were the routes preferred by cattle drovers. Seven years later, in 1812, with the road from Invermoriston via Glen Shiel having reached only as far as Ceannacroc in Glen Moriston and further progress west held up by wrangling over costs, the new owner of Glenelg Estate, Patrick Bruce, revived the plan of reaching Kyle Rhea from Kinloch Hourn (albeit by an inland route rather than along the north shore of Loch Hourn). This intervention allowed the HRBC the opportunity to give the backers of its preferred option, the Glen Shiel route, an ultimatim: deposit their 50% share of its cost by 1st June 1812 or else it would reluctantly fund the Bruce route instead. This did the trick - the Glen Shiel road with its Cluanie-Tomdoun link was built and Kinloch Hourn was destined to remain forever a dead-end. 

 

Kinloch Hourn as depicted on an 1857 Admiralty Chart - photo credit: National Libraries of Scotland

All this meant that the 16 miles from Tomdoun to Kinloch Hourn must count as the least successful road, by some margin, the HRBC ever built - most of the rest of them remain integral parts of the road network to this day. It's a pity because the road to Kinloch Hourn was also one of their most challenging from the engineering perspective. This led to it being completed six years behind schedule and it was literally the death of the contractor, Mr Dick from Perth - he was killed by "falling down a precipice" on his way from Loch Hourn to Arisaig where he and his partner, Mr Readdie, were also building the HRBC road from Fort William. Dick's nephews took over the contract and managed it well enough: the Commission's consulting engineer Thomas Telford remarked somewhat sniffily that their bridges "though somewhat rudely are all strongly built".  

 

a tight corner near Kinloch Hourn

 

In the 1930s, there were proposals to build a power station at Kinloch Hourn powered by water sent down through a tunnel from a dammed and enlarged Loch Quoich: the short steep drop from the loch to the sea (about 650 feet in less than 3 miles) is a hydro-electric engineer's dream if a road engineer's nightmare. But the proposal was defeated in parliament and when the waters of Loch Quoich were harnessed by the Hydro Board in the 1950s, it was on the basis of the water being sent eastwards to the turbines (more about all that in this post). Thus was the seal set on Kinloch Hourn as the remotest of scenic backwaters, frequented only by hillwalkers and deer stalkers and untouched by the industry Thomas Telford had hoped for it 200 years ago.

 

Kinloch Hourn looking east (inland) in 1987