Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire / Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and Illustrations

by John H. Dixon

As the road ascends the Achtercairn Brae the village of Strath of Gairloch is well seen. The house in the largest grove of trees is the Established church manse (Rev. D. S. Mackenzie), in the enlargement of which in 1823 the celebrated geologist and author, Hugh Miller, took part as a mason's lad. In another grove in Strath is the Cottage Hospital, founded by Mr Francis H. Mackenzie, but now disused and occupied as a dwelling-house.

From the higher parts of the Achtercairn Brae there are splendid views of the Bay of Gairloch and the hills of Skye. From one point near the top of the Brae the jagged summits of the Cuchullins in Skye may be discerned.

To the left of the road, as the higher part is gained, there is a fine deep gorge down which the Achtercairn burn or river rushes; it forms a pretty cascade in the higher part. A rock on the north side of the gorge is called Craig an Fhithich, because a raven formerly nested in a crevice on the face of it. After a short descent notice a large boulder on the right of the road called "The shoestone" (Clach nam Brog), from the fact that women who had walked barefoot over the hills on their way to church at Gairloch were (and still frequently are) accustomed here to resume their shoes and stockings. To the left is a reedy loch on the minister's glebe, called Loch Feur, a haunt of ducks and other wildfowl. Another small loch, called Lochan nan Breac, or Lochan nan Breac Adhair, lies still further to the left.

At this point notice a singular-looking hill to the right of and nearer to the road than the Lochan nan Breac. It is an interesting subject for the geologist. Dr Geikie, speaking of the hummocky outlines of the gneiss emerging from under the overlying sandstones, writes as follows of this hill:—"Little more than a mile to the north of the church (Gairloch) the road to Poolewe descends into a short valley surrounded with gneiss hills. From the top of the descent the eye is at once arrested by a flat-topped hill standing in the middle of the valley at the upper end, and suggesting some kind of fortification; so different from the surrounding hummocky declivities of gneiss is its level grassy top, flanked by wall-like cliffs rising upon a glacis-slope of debris and herbage." Further on, this flat-topped hill, seen in profile, looks like an enormous railway embankment.

By the side of the road, on the left, there is or was one of those heaps of stones formed by funeral parties (see [pages 115 and 116]).

About half a mile beyond the shoestone, and some two hundred yards to the right of the road, is a pond or very small loch, called Lochan nan Airm, or the "tarn of the arms," into which long ago warriors vanquished in a fight near the place threw their weapons (see [page 21]). The commencement of a drain, intended to empty the tarn so as to discover the weapons, is still to be seen; it was stopped by the then laird of Gairloch, whose permission had not been obtained for draining the tarn. This tarn is in a hollow on the side of one of the moraines of ancient glaciers which hereabouts flank the highroad.

About two and a half miles from the Gairloch Hotel the summit of the watershed is reached. The pass through which the road turns, after a long ascent, is called "The glen," where is a good spring. To the left is the rock called Craig Bhadain an Aisc, at which the two little boys of Allan M'Leod, of Gairloch, were murdered by their uncles and then buried (see [page 26]).

At the further end of "The glen" there is on the right hand side of the road a flat moss called Blar na Fala, or "the plain of the blood," because this was a place to which cattle were driven in order that blood might be taken from them (see [page 136]).

Further on, Loch Tollie, a mile in length, is spread out on the right. The trout-fishing of this loch is attached to the Gairloch Hotel, and there is a boat for the use of anglers. The small island near the shore with a few bushes on it (see [illustration]) is of artificial origin; it was a crannog or fortress of the MacBeaths, and afterwards of the M'Leods. The traditions connected with the island will be found in [chaps. vi]. and [vii.] of Part I. An anecdote of a very different character, telling how a wild cat and her young were killed on this island, is given in [Part III., chap. iii].

The hill to the south of "The Glen" bears the name of Meall Aridh Mhic Criadh, and is 1140 feet in height.