Friday, June 26, 2009

Walking on Raasay East Coast and Calum's Road


Walking on Raasay East Coast and Calum's Road.

Raasay has a great variety of walking ranging from gentle paths to the nightmarish East Coast route. Dropping down to the ruins of Hallaig from the summit of Dun Caan, I was overcome by the tranquilty of the area, and felt moved by the thought of this bustling village in years gone by. As a result of the Highland Clearances, no one farms at Hallaig now and although life must have been hard, replacing the native Scots with sheep, was a bitter betrayal of Highland loyalty.

Further North, the ruins of North and South Screapadal once again demonstrate how a thriving population left the land of their birth for an uncertain future. Near Screapadal is the start of the famous Calum's Road, a single handed project of road building by a proud and thoughtful man, Calum Macleod. The story of his epic struggle as well as the wider context of the Highland Clearances is well told in the book Calum's Road by Roger Hutchison. This is one of my favourite Scottish Books and I would encourage you to read it.



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