Loch Maree is itself a sort of highway, and boats may generally be hired at Kenlochewe, Talladale, or Poolewe to traverse its length. But now that the little steamer plies on Loch Maree the tour of the loch is greatly facilitated. (See [Part IV., chap. xiii.])
Chapter III.
Achnasheen to Kenlochewe.
The parish of Gairloch communicates with the great railway system of the kingdom at Achnasheen; the nearest part of the parish is about four miles from the railway station.
The Dingwall and Skye Railway was opened about 1870, and is now a branch of the Highland Railway. Before 1870 the Gairloch mail-car started from the Dingwall railway station. The mail-car was worked at that time, as now, by Mr Murdo M'Iver, the much-respected and courteous landlord of the Achnasheen Hotel. At this hotel the traveller may obtain refreshments en passant, or may linger awhile. Notice the luxuriant growth of the lovely scarlet creeper Tropæolum speciosum, on the hotel. The mail-car leaves Achnasheen for Gairloch soon after the arrival of the morning train from the south. In the height of the tourist season it is safest to bespeak seats on the car. More luxurious tourists may hire open or close conveyances from Mr M'Iver, whose postal address is "Achnasheen, by Dingwall." The name Achnasheen means "the field of storms," and is generally allowed to be appropriate. The obliging station-master may be relied upon to remedy as far as he can any of those casualties which frequently occur to travellers in the tourist season, who sometimes move about with an unnecessary amount of luggage.
To most people it is an agreeable change to lose sight of the railway, a consummation which is achieved a few minutes after you leave the Achnasheen Hotel. Over the bridge on the left goes the road to Strath Carron. Beyond the bridge is the Ledgowan shooting lodge, formerly the hotel. Notice here the wonderful straight terraces, resembling very closely great railway embankments. Geologists differ about their origin; they look like moraines of ancient glaciers or ancient sea-banks, broken through by the now small river from Loch Rosque, which must have had larger volume at some remote date. On the left we pass the old Loch Rosque lodge, and on the right the new one. Near the roadside, below the new lodge, are to be seen quantities of iron slag, the evidences of ancient iron-smelting. Similar remains of ironworks may also be observed by the roadside near the other end of Loch Rosque. These old ironworks belong to the ancient class treated of in [Part I., chap. xvii]. Loch Rosque is over three miles long, and is placed on our list of Gairloch lochs, inasmuch as its western end juts into the parish. Observe on the other side of the loch pieces of detached walls, erected to enable sheep to shelter from the cutting winds which often sweep through this glen. Most travellers get rather tired of Loch Rosque, yearning as they naturally do for the superior attractions of Loch Maree. A small burn near the west end of Loch Rosque is the boundary of Gairloch parish. Just after passing it is a cottage, and near it stands a square upright stone. The stone is called Clach an t' Shagart, or "the stone of the priest." The place is called Bad a Mhanaich, or "the monk's grove." It seems there was here a settlement of some of the early pioneers of Christianity. They say that baptisms were conducted at the Clach an t' Shagart. The name of Loch Rosque itself is believed by many to signify "the loch of the cross." (See "[Glossary].")
After passing the Gairloch boundary there is another humble dwelling (lately a licensed house), called Luibmhor. It suggests what the inn at Kenlochewe must have been in the old days as described in Pennant's "Tour" ([Appendix B]). On the green at the head of the loch was the original Luibmhor Inn, the scene of the incident called "The watch of Glac na Sguithar," related on [page 51].
The road now ascends; gradually the eastern hills pass out of sight; the rugged mountains of Coulin and Kenlochewe are in view during the drive along Loch Rosque; then they also disappear. At this part of the journey I always think of what occurred to myself some years ago. I was on the mail-car, traversing this road in the reverse direction. Near me sat a tourist, a clergyman of the English Church, who had amused himself during the preceding part of the journey by inquiring the name of every hill and place we passed. As soon as the mountain called Scuir a Mhuilin, to the south of Strath Braan, eastward of Achnasheen, came in sight, he asked me its name. I told him. When we got near Achnasheen he again inquired the name of the same hill, which now seemed larger and grander, and I again told him. Half an hour later he came up to me on the platform of the Achnasheen station, and asked quite seriously if I could tell him "the name of that hill." I said with some emphasis, "Scuir a Mhuilin!" I am bound to admit that the reverend gentleman tendered a humble apology for his unconscious repetition of the inquiry. Whether he remembered the name of the mountain I know not. There is no good to be gained by stating the name of every hill we notice.
Soon after leaving Loch Rosque a curious hill is seen away to the left, which is said in all the guide-books to resemble the profile of a man's face looking skywards, and by a stretch of the imagination any traveller may arrive at the same conclusion.