Wednesday
the 26 June, 2013
featuring
58
north – one lane through the Highlands – Altnaharra Inn, still serving whiskey after 193 years – down the Naver to Bettyhill – wretched
cries, affrighted cattle, yelling dogs, burning houses - Bloodyhill
58
north
It never got properly dark last night. David had gone with Chris, our hostess, to a village
concert and I remember waking up at 11 when he came home and
wondering why there was still soft light through the window. Chris
had invited us both to the concert . David went. I didn't, and
regretted it immediately. There were pipes, accordions, choirs and
dancing, but most of all, David said he loved mixing with a close
community.
Lairg is 58 degrees north
and at this midsummer season, there are 18 hours between the rising
and setting of the sun. The evenings are long and the light gentle.
Winters are harsh and
long. On the shortest day you get only 6 hours of daylight, and it
gets unbelievably cold - minus 21 degrees Celsius in December 2010.
That's nippy!
 |
| The last two days of riding - from Lairg to Bettyhill, then to John o'Groats.
And the profile of today's ride.
 |
One
lane through the Highlands
Chris served us porridge
for breakfast but I will remember this meal best for her chatty and
warmly friendly company. Chris had been a teacher for 20 years in
Thurso, the most northerly British mainland town, and had settled in Lairg to
be near her family. She asked thoughtful questions about our trip, asked
to keep in touch and told us we would be going through a part of
Scotland infamous for the 'Clearances' when many families were
bullied from their cottages and left to starve, emigrate or die. The
most vilified name associated with the Clearances was the Duchess of
Sutherland, not Mary Caroline but her ancestor two generations back.
The title must have gone to their heads.
The road to Bettyhill is
narrow, but provided with passing bays every couple of hundred
metres. The traffic was moderate, cautious and exceptionally
considerate. I got many waves, flicking lights, cars pulling over to
let me past, encouraging comments, more than I had received all
trip. Maybe it was the isolation. I loved the attention! Thanks,
everyone!
Altnaharra
Inn, still serving whisky after 193 years!
We climbed without effort
onto the moors, scruffy with the jumbled debris of cut logs and
stumps, the distant hills spotted with snow through haze. Past Crask
Inn, the overnight stop for the Australian cyclists I had seen at the
Shin Falls, then downhill to Loch Naver and the Altnaharra Inn where I
met David for coffee. These two inns are the only two feeding stops
on the whole stretch before Bettyhill. This is a lonely and exposed
landscape and, ominously, the wind, my friend
since.....Worcester(?) had moved to the north.
 |
| The village of Altnaharra, where temperatures up to minus 27 C have been recorded, The Inn is out of sight on the other side of the road. |
 |
| Crask Inn, one of only two villages between Lairg and Bettyhill. The Inn provides meals and accommodation and is a popular overnight for cyclists. “Watch out for the midges in Scotland!” was just one of the many pieces of advice offered by kind locals. ( “ You must try a single malt” “ Scottish women can be very direct” “ the hills of Scotland are not as bad as the uphills in Cornwall.” were others). |
The midges, little black
flies with irritating powers of persistence, caught me up on the
shores round Loch Naver beside Altnaharra. So annoying were they that
I had to cram my blueberry muffin into my gob and get prematurely on
the way. I never saw them from then on. Just in that little glade,
half-way along the Loch. Make sure you don't stop there or you'll
risk an unwanted blood transfusion.
 |
| Loch Naver, looking back to Altnaharra at the far end of the lake. Hundreds of families were thrown off their land in this region during the Clearances. |
The ride round the Loch is
only slightly up and down but is sinuous and it is simply greatly
enjoyable to zoom round the bends with the moors high on your left,
the loch on the right and the midges left far in your wake.
Down
the Naver to Bettyhill
Bye bye to the Loch and
now, only a few miles ahead is the north coast of Britain. Yay! This
ride alone would have made for a happy day but there was a bonus this
afternoon. The road is called the Strathnaver Trail and a clever and
considerate person ( sorry I don't know who you are) has brought the
history of the area alive by erecting a series of illustrated signs
describing what happened here in the past. I took hours on this part
of the ride. It was a treasure hunt. And perfect for riders. Some of
the signs were on narrow corners and in a car it would be tempting to
pass them by.
This afternoon I was in
the a region where the Clearances hit most cruelly. Rossal was a
lively nearby town. It was obliterated between 1811-1820
Wretched
cries, affrighted cattle, yelling dogs, burning houses
For centuries, the
Highlanders had farmed cattle and harvested kelp to make their
living. In the late 1700s, the price of cattle meat fell and the
price of wool rose.
Many landlords decided
that they could make more money by replacing the farmers with
shepherds and the cattle with sheep.
The way this was carried
out has been called the worst-ever brutality forced on the Scottish
people.
One shepherd could look
after sheep and land that up to now, had supported up to 16
families( 5 people per family). So the families were superfluous and
were evicted, often at night, often in winter, usually with no place
to go.
 |
| The ruins of a crofter's cottage. The walls are low, made of stone. On top of the stone, peat is piled to provide head-room inside. The roof was bracken or heather. The family lived down one end and the animals at the other end.
“ The cries of women and
children, the roaring of the affrighted cattle, hunted by yelling
dogs amid smoke and fire, presented a scene that baffles description.
I counted 250 blazing houses from where I stood.”
|
- Donald McLeod, tenant farmer and victim of the Clearances, author of “Gloomy Memories” .
A contemporary representation of the misery inflicted on the Highlanders during the clearances.
Some of the 170,000
victims froze to death, others starved, some were sent to the coast
to become fishermen, many emigrated, to Canada, Australia, New
Zealand.
The Duchess of Sutherland
(Elizabeth) after whom Bettyhill is named, was vicious
“ They require little to
sustain them. Scotch people do not fatten like the larger breed of
animals.” she sniffed as she sent women and children to their
deaths.
Bloodyhill
Not because of the
Duchess, but so-named by cyclists because of the 2 km climb to the
little village of Bettyhill from sea level. The strong head wind for
the last ten miles was trying but this afternoon will remain a strong
memory because of the drama of the Strathnaver Trail.
 |
| Half-way up "Bloodyhill" on the outskirts of Bettyhill, a village founded to house the survivors of the clearances who had been evicted from their farms and who were now expected to make their living by fishing. |
For the first time, ever,
I looked out over the cliffs and inlets to where the Atlantic Ocean
meets the North Sea. I had ridden on all four coasts of Britain.
John o'Groats was one day's riding along the top of Scotland.
“ Just wait to see where
I've booked us for tonight.” David, who was waiting for me in
Bettyhill, was about to reveal another of his top-quality choices of
board and lodging.
 |
| David on the coast at Bettyhill, reminiscent of the coast of Cornwall at the beginning of our trip. |
| Distance Today | Average Speed | Max Speed | Riding Time | Trip Odometer. |
| 73.45 | 15.8 | 41.2 | 4h 37m | 1580.1 |
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