Book 78: Calum's Road

 Calum's Road by Roger Hutchinson - first published in the UK in 2006

This book tells the story of a remarkably determined man called Calum MacLeod, who lived on the island of Raasay off the east coast of Skye.  He got tired of waiting for the local council to build 1.75 miles of road from Brochel to his home community at Arnish and decided to build the road himself.  

Calum's Road has to be seen in the light of the last 200 years of the history of Raasay and its inhabitants.  In the mid 19th century the people of Raasay were cleared from the more fertile areas of the island to make way for sheep.  Many emigrated and those who remained were banished to eke out a living at the north end of the island and on the tidal islands of Fladda and Eilean Tigh or on the rocky island of Rona to the north of Raasay.  George Rainy, who owned Raasay from 1846 to 1863, had a 6-foot high dry stone wall constructed across the island at its narrowest part.  The islanders were not permitted to live or graze their animals on the south side of the wall.  

In 1921 desperate crofters from Rona settled illegally on the south east side of Raasay and reclaimed the land, from which their ancestors had been evicted 70 years earlier.  They became known as the Raasay Raiders.  After a court case, the matter was finally resolved when the island was sold to the Scottish Rural Workers Approved Society.  They leased the island to the Board of Agriculture, who created new crofts on Raasay.

In the 1920s the inhabitants of Fladda unsuccessfully petitioned the local council for a footbridge over the tidal causeway, so that the children who lived on Fladda could walk to and from school.  Instead of a bridge, the council built a small school on Fladda in 1936.  In 1962 Calum asked the council for a causeway to Fladda but he was told the cost was too high.  In 1965 the last three families left Fladda.

In 1931 the inhabitants of north Raasay petitioned their local council for a 3.5 mile road from Brochel Castle to Arnish and on to Fladda.  Beyond Brochel Castle the only access was a narrow footpath.  Gradually the population of north Raasay decreased, mainly because of the lack of road access.  Calum hoped that this decline would be reversed if a road was built. Despite decades of petitioning for the road, the local council always refused to build it.

From 1949 to 1952 the local council paid Calum and his brother Charles to build a track from Torran to Fladda.

Calum began building a road from Brochel to Arnish in around 1964 using only hand tools and a second hand book on road construction and maintenance, which was published in 1900. Calum got through 6 picks, 6 shovels, 3 wheelbarrows, 4 spades and 5 sledgehammers while building the road. He did the road building in his spare time - he was a crofter, postman, boatman and an assistant lighthouse keeper on Rona  By the time he finished the road he and his wife were the only residents left at Arnish.   He did all the work on the road himself, apart from some help with blasting through some sections to form the foundations and create aggregate, which the Department of Agriculture paid for, and some surveying, which the Royal Engineers did for him.  

Calum's road was finished by 1974 but was only accessible for tractors and 4-wheel drive vehicles.  After much discussion and procrastinating, the local council tarmacked the road in 1982.  Calum died suddenly in 1988.

This book is more than just the story of a road.  It is about what one individual can achieve if they are determined enough.

Wheelbarrow and sign at the start of Calum's Road at Brochel 

Calum's Memorial at Brochel

Calum's Road

Book 77 - Like a Mantle the Sea

Like a Mantle the Sea by Stella Shepherd - first published in the UK in 1971

Papa Stour is a small island located off the west coast of Shetland Mainland. 

Stella Shepherd and her husband moved to the island of Papa Stour in 1962 to take up the posts of school teacher and lay assistant minister respectively.  They lived in the draughty school house and for the first few years there was no electricity or piped water in the house.  Light was provided by paraffin lamps and water had to be collected from an outside well.  They stayed for 8 years until there were no pupils left at the school for Stella to teach. 

In the mid 19th century the population of Papa Stour was 350 but it fell steadily from the 1870s onwards, due initially to a decline in the herring fishing industry.  By 1962 it was about 50.  When she arrived on Papa Stour Stella had 8 pupils but one by one they left to go to secondary school on Shetland Mainland or their families left the island or in one sad case one of her pupils became ill and died.  Mechanisation enabled the dwindling population to cope with the extra work they had to do to keep life on the island viable:

"The depopulation and consequent labour shortage have led to enforced mechanisation.  Thus the few men left have to have mechanical aids.  And these few men, in order to maintain a reasonable standard of life and to keep abreast of the work, must be men of many parts".

Stella describes the daily lives of the islanders, seasonal farming events (e.g. fertilising the land with seaweed, ploughing and potato planting), their social events (e.g. weddings) and local customs (e.g. the Papa Stour Sword Dance and kale throwing at Hallowe'en).  She also gives details of the coastal geomorphology, landscape, flora and fauna of the island.  She and her husband lent a hand when they could and got involved in all the social events.  During her time there an airstrip and new pier were constructed, which improved communication with and access to the outside world.  Council officials came and went and there were occasional visitors.

Stella and her husband cheerfully endured long stormy winters when Papa Stour was cut off from the mainland for weeks at a time.

Papa Stour is now served by a roll on-roll off car ferry 4 days a week but in 2011 the population was only 15. 

Papa Stour Airfield

Natural Arch at Aesha/Aisha Head 

Lyra Skerry off the NW coast of Papa Stour

Snolda Stack

Remains of watermills at Dutch Loch

These horizontal mills once had turf roofs.

Ruined farm, Hamna Voe

Aesha Stack with a natural arch incorporated into it

Book 76 - Island on the Edge: A Life on Soay

Island on the Edge: A Life on Soay by Anne Cholawo - first published in the UK by Birlinn in 2016

I read this book geographically out of sequence because hadn't been published when I started this blog and I only became aware of it through a chance conversation with someone while out on a walk.

In 1989, on the last day of her first visit to the Hebrides, Anne Pacey from Bedfordshire saw an advertisement for a house for sale on the island of Soay, which is located off the south coast of Skye.  A few weeks later she returned to look at Glenfield House and fell in love with Soay's peace and beauty.  She bought the house without really thinking through the practicalities of living on a small island with no shop or regular ferry service.  She moved to Soay in May 1990.  At this time the population of the island was 17.

Glenfield House was damp and had no electricity.  The other islanders were a great practical help to Anne in her first few weeks and months on Soay and with their help she managed to overcome lots of practical obstacles, which might have prevented her from staying on the island.

Gavin Maxwell bought Soay in 1946 and set up a short lived (until 1948) basking shark fishing business on the island.  One of his assistants, Tex Geddes, was still living on Soay with his wife Jeanne when Anne arrived and they became friends and helped each other out in various ways.
Anne lived very frugally and made a living by selling paintings and winkle pickings.  She grew her own vegetables and collected driftwood to burn in her Rayburn.  She bought a small dinghy and later she had the use of another islander's motorboat.  In 1998 she bought her own boat, Sally B.

A month after her arrival on Soay Anne met Robert Cholawo, who was working for the Royal Marines who visited Soay for training exercises.  The became friends and years later they married. One by one over the years the inhabitants of Soay moved off the island for various reasons or died.  A few people moved in to replace them but by 2004 the population was just three, including Anne and her husband Robert.

Most of the book is about Anne's life on Soay from 1990-2002. This book demonstrates that you need stamina, adaptability and resourcefulness to live on a small island.

Islands covered: Soay and Skye

Book 75 - The Chapel at the Edge of the World

The Chapel at the Edge of the World by Kirsten McKenzie - first published in the UK in 2009

This novel is based on some real life events but with fictitious characters.  This is the true story:

In January 1942 1,200 Italian prisoners of war, who had been captured in North Africa, were sent to camps on the uninhabited Orkney island of Lamb Holm (500 of them) and the larger inhabited island of Burray.  Their task was to assist the contractor Balfour Beatty in the building of what later became known as the Churchill Barriers.  These are 5 causeways linking Orkney Mainland and the four islands lying in a chain to the south: Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm (uninhabited), Burray and South Ronaldsay.  The 5th and lesser known Churchill Barrier links Burray to the small island of Hunda.  The purpose of the causeways was to protect the eastern side of the deep water anchorage of Scapa Flow, which was used as a base by the Royal Navy, from attack by the Germans.  In October 1939 HMS Royal Oak was sunk by a U-boat in Scapa Flow and 833 men lost their lives.

 

Initially the Italians refused to work on the barriers and went on strike because the Geneva Convention forbade the use of prisoners of war in "war work".  However they were eventually persuaded that the barriers were needed to link the islands together to improve communications for the islanders of Burray and South Ronaldsay.  Today the Churchill Barriers are used to carry the A961 road from St Mary's on Orkney Mainland to South Ronaldsay

The Italians at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm persuaded the camp commandant Major T.P. Buckland to allow them to build a chapel on Lamb Holm. Domenico Chiocchetti, an artist and sculptor, recruited craftsmen such as plasterers, blacksmiths and electricians from amongst his fellow prisoners.  Together they transformed 2 Nissen huts into a wonderful chapel using readily available materials and trompe l'oeil.  The corrugated iron walls were covered with plasterboard, an altar was constructed and ornate ironwork was used to create the sanctuary screen.  A concrete façade with a small belfry was built in front of the entrance.  The inside was painted to resemble brickwork and Domenico Chiocchetti painted a Madonna and Child mural as the altarpiece. 

 

The Italians left Orkney in 1944. In 1960 Chiocchetti returned to Lamb Holm for 3 weeks to help restore the chapel, which has been looked after by the local people ever since.  The Italian Chapel as it is now known is one of the main tourist attractions on Orkney. 

 

In the novel Emilio Sforza, who lives on Lake Como is sent to fight for the Italian army in North Africa.  He is captured in June 1941 and he and his friend Bertoldo are sent to Orkney to work on the Churchill Barriers. They are later involved in the creation of the chapel on Lamb Holm.

 

Meanwhile Emilio's girlfriend Rosa remains at home on Lake Como, where she assists her mother in the running of a small hotel.  After the surrender of Italy to the British in September 1943, Rosa joins the Italian resistance movement and assists in the fight against the Nazis. She has a brief affair with a childhood friend Pietro before he is killed by the Nazis This is actually the more interesting of the two parallel stories.

 

After the war Rosa and Emilio marry and many years later they are invited back to Orkney.  However by this time Emilio is suffering from dementia

 

The book title is a bit overdramatic - Orkney is not the edge of the world, although it might have seemed like it to the Italian prisoners of war.

 

Islands covered: Lamb Holm, Orkney Mainland

 

 

 

Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm

 

Inside the Italian Chapel - a masterpiece of trompe l'oeil

Statue of St George slaying a dragon outside the Italian Chapel

 Memorial to the men who died while working on the construction of the Churchill Barriers

Burray from Glimps Holm showing Churchhill Barrier No 2 and Blockship

Book 74 - The Magic of the Scottish Islands

The Magic of the Scottish Islands by Terry Marsh (author) and Jon Sparks (photographer) - first published in the UK in 2002

This is a lovely book with more photographs than text.  The photographs are stunning and showcase the Scottish islands in a wonderful way.  Although there are a huge number of islands to cover and not that much space for text, the author has achieved a good balance between providing information about the human and natural history and geography of the islands and summing up what makes each island special.  The title of the book is The Magic of the Scottish Islands and Terry Marsh has managed to convey this.  I met him by chance while I was geocaching on Shetland Mainland in June 2017 and he told me about this book, which had escaped my notice until then.

These quotations about 3 of my favourite islands explain beautifully what makes them magical places:

"Fair Isle is magically fair: a resilient place with resilient people.  The weather comes and the weather goes but the subtle magic of Fair Isle remains."

With regard to the seabird colonies at Hermaness, Unst, Shetland:
"The impact is awesome, breathtaking, lasting and humbling.  You sit.  You watch. You listen. You feel privileged.  Because that's how to behave in this kind of company.  You don't ever want to leave,"

"There is an aura of calm and friendliness about North Ronaldsay, a small island beneath a huge sky."

North Ronaldsay Lighthouse, Orkney

 

Puffins on Fair Isle

 

North Lighthouse, Fair Isle

 

Muckle Flugga and Out Stack from Hermaness, Unst

Book 73 - Canvey Island

Canvey Island by James Runcie - first published in the UK in 2006

The book opens on the night of 31^st January 1953 when there was a huge tidal storm surge in the North Sea, which led to extensive flooding of coastal areas on the eastern side of England from Lincolnshire to Kent and also in the Netherlands.  Much of Canvey Island off the south east coast of Essex lies below sea level and large parts of the island were inundated by seawater on that night and 58 people died there.

Martin Turner's mother Lily drowns as she is trying to escape from their bungalow with Martin while her husband Len and sister Violet are out at a dance together.  Martin is swept to safety and reunited with his father and aunt.  Violet's husband George is mentally fragile as a result of his experiences in the Second World War and after Lily's death Len and Violet become very close. 

The novel follows Martin through his life as he goes to Cambridge University to study engineering in order to prevent events like the North Sea Floods from reoccurring, separates from his Canvey Island girlfriend Linda, marries fellow Cambridge student Claire, moves to Brighton and has a daughter Lucy.  In 1983 Claire suddenly leaves her teaching job and takes Lucy to live at the Greenham Common Peace Camp.  Martin temporarily gets back together with Linda.  George's mental health continues to deteriorate and Len begins to age.

The novel has many short chapters, which are told from the perspectives of the main characters in turn - Martin, Len, Violet, George, Linda and Claire.

This is what James Runcie has to say about his own book "Canvey Island tells the story of changing times in post-war Britain through one family’s tragedy and loss. It is a novel about past wounds and past passions, about growing up and growing old, about love, hope and reconciliation."

St Katherine's Church - now Canvey Island's Heritage Centre

 

King Canute Pub - formerly called the Red Cow and used as a rescue centre in 1953, as it is located on slightly higher ground

 

Post 1953 Sea wall on the coast of Canvey Island

Book 72 - No Boat Required

No Boat Required: Exploring Tidal Islands by Peter Caton - first published in the UK in 2011

This isn't the best written book ever and it isn't really a reference work but I have found it invaluable in my quest to visit as many islands off the British coast as possible.  I applaud anyone who manages to find a subject that no one else has already written about and I am pretty certain that there is no other book about all the tidal islands off the British mainland.  Most books about islands ignore tidal islands, as they don't consider them to be true islands.  I have found nothing else published about several of the islands visited in this book.

The premise of the book is that the author likes visiting island but suffers from sea sickness, so doesn't like going on ferries to islands.  He succeeds in walking to 43 tidal islands off the coast of mainland Britain and this book is an account of his journeys.  It is written in a conversational style and in places has overlong descriptions of his journey to get to the crossing points, including what he ate for breakfast and what the weather was like.  However he also includes a great deal of historical information.  I use the book as a practical travel guide and for this purpose it is a bit lacking in details e.g. about exactly where to cross from.  However I would guess that the vast majority of people who read the book aren't likely to visit most of the less well known islands.  The book is also lacking an index.

In theory with tidal islands all you need to do is to wait for the tide to go out and then walk to them, although it isn't always that simple, as the author finds out - precipitous cliffs, unwelcoming land owners, overgrown footpaths and soft mud can sometimes be a problem and some islands can only be walked to on a very low spring tide.  Mr Caton made it harder for himself by using public transport where possible.  Personally I find a car an invaluable asset for an island bagger.   I have so far managed to visit 28 out of the 43 islands.  Dangers or problems he encountered on the way to a few of the islands have put me off visiting them e.g. Ynys Lochtyn (cliffs) and Horsey & Osea (unwelcoming owners).

The book also includes information about a few islands the author rejected because they weren't big enough or have bridges/causeways to them.  However I am not such a purist, so found this information very useful and am glad he included it.

9/10

Islands covered: too many to list.

Ardwall Island from Knockbrex

 



Trig Point on the summit of Davaar


Castle, Piel Island


Causeway to Sully Island


Worms Head 3 hours before low tide


Hilbre, Dee Estuary