Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the turn-off for the narrow, twisty roller-coaster of a single-track road down to the small
but perfectly formed ferry at Kylerhea.
The good ship
Glenachulish
is a micro car ferry; you could squeeze maybe half a
dozen vehicles onto it. If two of them were motor bikes. It used to be the Ballachulish
ferry until 1975 when the bridge was opened there. When it glides up to the slipway at
Kylerhea the two guys operating it use leg power to turn the whole car deck round to
face the right way so the cars can exit ahead; we clatter on along with one other vehicle.
There's a dog that seems to be part of the crew too. It looks a lot like one of those slightly
mad black-and-white collies that hides by farm gateways in the outer isles and jumps out
to chase unsuspecting tourists and their cars, but proves friendly, before exhausting itself
being patted and going for a lie down in the shade of the loading ramp. It barely gets its
head down when we bump gently against the slipway on the far side and its time for the
hound to resume its duties, carefully watching the unloading and loading.
The Kyle here is very narrow indeed and the tide can surge through like a broad rush-
ing river. My dad has tales of his old Admiralty boat, the
Mandarin
, making full speed
ahead in the straits but nevertheless - the timing not being quite right and the ship en-
countering the still increasing force of the tide - finding herself going slowly backwards.
In the old days they swam their cattle over here before setting off on the long journey
south via the droving roads to the cattle markets in Falkirk. You imagine they paid close
attention to the state of the tide.
As the ferry ties up and nestles closer to the slipway, I watch the mooring rope as it
straightens, tightening, quivering briefly with tension that wrings the water from it, drops
spotting the ramp's pale slope of concrete.
From Glen Elg - ignoring the GWR round the coast to Arnisdale and Corran, and the
route to the fine broch in Gleann Beag - the road twists and turns energetically up to the
Bealach Ratagan - Ratagan Pass - to reveal one of the finest views in Scotland: Loch
Duich and the Five Sisters of Kintail. As if hypnotised with the scenery, the road goes
a bit mad after this, looping and writhing and swooping through the forest in a series of
wild curves and heroically pitched gradients down towards the loch and the main road at
Shiel Bridge. It's a tight, constrained wee drive; fun but a bit slow (it's more challenging
as a hill climb going the opposite direction). The A87 from Shiel Bridge to Invergarry on
the other hand is, as mentioned in
Chapter 7
, just superb.
It's the usual route after that on the way south to South and then North Queensferry,
via Spean Bridge and Dalwhinnie, then the Trinafour cut-off and - appropriately, given
that we've been to Ken's nominal ancestral home at Dunvegan this morning - Castle
Menzies near Weem, which is mine. That is, if you believe at all in all this clan stuff.
On the A86, passing the Fersit sign, I point out where the P-reg 911 came to grief. No,
let's be honest; where I brought it to grief.
