Cleadale
Cleadale is a settlement on the north west side of the island of Eigg, in the Small Isles of Scotland and is in the council area of Highland. The setting is visually dramatic
Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
Glenborrodale
Glenborrodale is a coastal community on Loch Sunart in the south of the Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Highland area of Scotland. It gives its name to a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' reserve in the nearby oakwoods. Glenborrodale Castle was built as a guest house by Charles Rudd, the main business associate of Cecil Rhodes, was owned by Jesse Boot, the proprietor of the Boots chain of chemist shops, its grounds include Eilean an Feidh. In May 1746, following the Jacobite rising of 1745 two French supply ships were attacked off Glenborrodale by three ships of the Royal Navy
Acharacle
Acharacle is a village in Ardnamurchan, within the county of Argyll. It is in the Highland Council area of Scotland The place name is rendered Àth Tharracail in Scottish Gaelic, means "Tarracal's ford"; the Gaelic place name is composed of two world elements: the personal name Tarracal. This personal name is cognate to the Scottish Gaelic Torcall and the English Torquil, which are derived from the Old Norse Þorketill. According to Moidart tradition noted in the 19th century, Torquil was the leader of a force of Norwegians who were pursued by Somerled, made a final stand at the riverside below Acharacle Manse, where they were slain. Acharacle lies on the western end of Loch Shiel and its surrounding scenery make it a holiday destination for hill climbers and naturalists, it has, among other resources, a small primary school with around 60 pupils, a hotel, a garage, a baker's shop and chip shop, cafe and a grocery store/post office as well as a doctor's surgery. Acharacle is about 3 miles from the Dorlin Beach.
The population is about 300. It is connected to the towns of Mallaig on the west coast and Fort William by a mixed dual and single track road to the villages north and by road south and east and ferry at Ardgour to Fort William and Oban, it is one of the main centres for deer stalking on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. It supports salmon and trout fishing in Loch Shiel and sea fishing from Loch Sunart, nearby. Sheep farming and crofting are to be found locally and a new distillery has been built close to the village. Shiel Buses service public transport to both Mallaig and Fort William
Croft (land)
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land small and arable, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land as a tenant farmer in rural areas; the word croft is West Germanic in etymology and is now most familiar in Scotland, most crofts being in the Highlands and Islands area. Elsewhere the expression is archaic. In Scottish Gaelic, it is rendered croit. Similar positions have been the medieval villein and the Swedish torpare and Norwegian husmenn; the Scottish croft is a small agricultural landholding of a type, subject to special legislation applying to the Highland region of Scotland since 1886. The legislation was a response to the complaints and demands of tenant families who were victims of the Highland Clearances; the modern crofters or tenants appear little in evidence before the beginning of the 18th century. They were tenants at will underneath the tacksman and wadsetters, but their tenure was secure enough; the first evidence that can be found of small tenants holding directly of the proprietor is in a rental of the estates of Sir D. MacDonald in Skye and North Uist in 1715.
The first planned crofting townships in the Outer Hebrides were Barragloum and Kirkibost which were laid out into 32 large "lots" of between 14 and 30 acres in the uniform rectangular pattern that would become familiar in decades. This work was carried out in 1805 by James Chapman for the Earl of Seaforth; the first edition of the Ordnance Survey in 1850 highlights the division of this land and the turf and stone boundaries built by the first tenants in 1805 are still in use today as croft boundaries. Kirkibost was'cleared' of its tenants in 1823 and the 1850 mapping shows roofless ruins on each parcel of land; the township was however re-settled in 1878 following the Bernera Riot four years earlier using the same division boundaries set out in 1805. The Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Crofters' Act 1886, after the Highland Land League had gained seats in that parliament; the government was Liberal, with William Ewart Gladstone as Prime Minister. Another Crofters' Act was created in 1993.
The earlier Act established the first Crofting Commission, but its responsibilities were quite different from those of the newer Crofters Commission created in 1955. The Commission is based in Inverness. Crofts held subject to the provisions of the Crofters' Acts are in the administrative counties of Shetland, Caithness, Ross-shire, Inverness-shire and Argyll, in the north and west of Scotland. Under the 1886 legislation protected crofters are members of a crofters' township, consisting of tenants of neighbouring crofts with a shared right to use common pasture. Since 1976 it has been possible for a crofter to acquire title to his croft, thus becoming an owner-occupier; the Land Reform Act 2003 gives crofters the right to buy their land. Crofting Torp This article incorporates text from "Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary". Scottish Crofting Federation Crofters CommissionArticles Crofters, Indigenous People of the Highlands and Islands at Scottish Crofting Foundation
Achnaha
Achnaha is a remote village in Ardnamurchan, Lochaber, in the Scottish council area of Highland. One of the local tourist attractions is the remnant of an old volcano, which has weathered down to the level of the old magma chamber, from which three eruptions originated; the ring of the old cone of the volcano can be seen using Google maps
A830 road
The A830 known as the Road to the Isles is a major road in Lochaber, Scottish Highlands. It connects the town of Fort William to the port of Mallaig; the road was constructed by Thomas Telford in the early 19th century. It remained a single-track road throughout most of the 20th century, with the final section being upgraded in 2009; as the Road to the Isles, it has been celebrated as a historic part of Scottish culture. The A830 is 46 miles long. Throughout its length, the road follows the route of the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig, it starts at a junction on the A82 north of Fort William and crosses the River Lochy over the Victoria Bridge. The road passes through several small settlements, including Corpach and Arisaig and bypasses the village of Morar, it follows the shorelines of Loch Eil and Loch Eilt, passes between a series of several glens between these. The road ends at the quayside in the port of Mallaig adjacent to the railway station with onward ferry services to the isles of Muck, Eigg, Rùm, Canna and Skye, a ferry across to the neighbouring peninsula at Inverie which although on the mainland has no other road access.
The historic Road to the Isles is an ancient drove road which leaves General Wade's military road from Stirling to Inverness at Tummel Bridge, along the northern banks of the River Tummel and Loch Rannoch along the present day B846. Where today's road runs out the old road continued over Rannoch Moor past Corrour Old Lodge towards Kings House on the A82, over the Devil's Staircase and past Kinlochleven, to meet the present A830 at Fort William. Before the 19th century, there was no established road beyond Glenfinnan; the area beyond this to Mallaig was known as the Na Garbh-Chriochain and was part of the Lordship of the Isles of Clan Donald part of the estates of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald. In 1803, Thomas Telford campaigned for government funding to build a "Parliamentary Road" across the estate from Banavie and Corpach towards Arisaig; the road was described as the "Loch-na-Gaul" road. In the late 1930s, a proposal was put forward in parliament to extend the A830 along the coast of the mainland as far as Kyle of Lochalsh.
This was dismissed as being prohibitively expensive and of little practical use. The road was predominantly single-track until the late 20th century. By 1954, a 6-long-ton weight limit had been imposed on the road. While a report in 1965 showed there were still 30 miles of single-track along the route. In 1969, the section between Craigag and Glenfinnan was widened, a new bridge over the Caledonian Canal at Banavie was built the following year; the poor quality of the A830 has caused the West Highland Line to remain open. In August 1991, a group of protestors, organised by a local councillor, blockaded the road as a protest over lack of improvements. In 2007, the road was assessed by the Institute of Advanced Motorists as being 1 of 11 roads in the UK having a "1 star" dangerous section along it. In April 2009, the final single-track section of A830 between Arisaig and Lochailort was bypassed by a modern replacement as part of a £23.4m upgrade. The 7.4-mile bypassed section has been handed to the local authority for maintenance and designated the B8008.
On 25 May 2008 the road was featured in the BBC TV programme Countryfile. There is a traditional Scottish song about the road, called The Road to the Isles; the lyrics mention locations the road passes, including: the Cuillin Hills, Loch Rannoch, Shiel, Morar, the Skerries and the Lews. A satirical song about the road, "The 8-3-0," was written by Ian McCalman and published in 1993, before the road's widening; the song lampoons the "single track" nature of the A-status road and depicts unsuspecting tourists dodging tourist buses and fish vans, returning from Mallaig by train instead. "Road to the Isles performed by Kings own Scottish Borderers" on YouTube
