Take the High Road
September 16th, 2008 Posted in ObservationsI’ve been neglecting you of late - I know, and I’m sorry. The main website has been pretty dead and the blog has been quiet too. I moved house at the end of August, and as anyone will tell you, it takes an age to get a working broadband connection, even in a city like London that thinks it is a modern 24-hour sort of place. Then, just when I get my new place online, I vanish for the best part of a week to attend a wedding in Scotland.
Living in London - with bus routes that run all night, trains to everywhere and an incredible number of people squashed in to every conceivable square centimetre of land - it’s easy to forget just how big the UK is. Most of the population is huddled in the south-eastern corner and the rest is often really quite empty. Well, I had my eyes opened over the weekend.
I went home to Leeds and stopped the night there, then set off driving for Kinlochmoidart, a sneeze of houses on the wrinkled hankerchief of the Highlands. And my word, is that ever a long way away. I’ve been to Scotland before, but I’m ashamed to say I had never ventured much north of the central belt of Glasgow and Edinburgh; a quick run up to the Friarton Bridge near Perth marked my previous most northward foray in the UK. So I set off from Leeds, up the A1, then A66, M6 and A74(M)/M74 to Glasgow. Stopping off at Hamilton services I congratulated myself on my excellent progress and having broken the back of the journey. I left there at 1.30pm, confident of a couple of hours more.
A normal person, you see, will look at a map and plan their journey. Me? I just use the map inside my head, and the map inside my head says M8 through Glasgow, Erskine Bridge, A82 to Fort William, then A830 and A861. Bish bash bosh. Job’s a good ‘un.
Several hours later - approaching 4pm - I reached this sign, just after passing through Tarbet. And then I stopped, and went back, and had another look, and took a picture. And then I nearly passed out.
Fort William - that’s nearly an hour from Kinlochmoidart, especially when it’s getting dark and you’re tired - is still 48 miles away. 48 miles! That’s quarter of the way from Leeds to London! The Highlands are very different sort of place, you see, and the first rule of driving there is that everywhere - no matter where you’re heading, and even if it’s just the next village along the road - everywhere is a long way away.
The A82 is, of course, stunning, and well worth the drive. On the way back on Sunday morning it was even less busy and the wonderful stretch through Glen Coe allowed plenty of opportunity for some very satisfying overtaking. I will be back, hopefully more able to stop and take in the scenery and less gobsmacked at the distances involved.
But eight hours in a car north from Leeds? And still a long, long way from running out of road? It’s good to be reminded of these things now and then, because it’s all too easy to forget just how much open road and unspoilt land there is in the UK - it’s just not anywhere near where most of us live.
5 Responses to “Take the High Road”
By Toby Speight on Sep 18, 2008
A lot of that is a part of my regular route between Cambridge and Lochcarron. I’ve done it in 10½ hours (without breaking the speed limits!), but I normally budget on 12-13 or so including a couple of fuel stops and something to eat. And maybe a trip round Tesco in Carlisle. Often it takes even longer, if I need a couple of hours’ kip in the back (and I often do, if I’m driving alone at night - I must be getting old).
But as you say, it’s well worth it. The scenery is unparalleled in Britain - my personal highlights are near Kingshouse, with Buachaille Etive Mor dominating, then five miles later descending Glen Coe with the Three Sisters across the glen; after your turn at Inverlochy I get the fantastic view of Glen Garry, and the descent of Glen Shiel makes a fourth. That said, my favourite of the lot is coming round the corner just after Stromeferry (A890) where Lochcarron comes into sight for the first time!
There’s some great engineering sights, too. You mentioned M8 in Glasgow and the Erskine Bridge, but there’s the pair of Williams bowstring arch bridges that delimit the Rannoch Moor section, and the Ballachulish Bridge, to name just two.
P.S. That’s a very new sign in your photo - A82 got its bilingual signs just this summer. Is that the one just after the snow gates as you leave Tyndrum (Tigh an Droma) northwards?
By Chris M on Sep 25, 2008
Scotland is big, really big. You just wouldn’t believe how mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you might think it’s a long way down the M1 to London, but that’s just peanuts to Scotland.
(with apologies to Douglas Adams)
By Chris on Sep 25, 2008
Toby - it is indeed the confirmiation just after the sharp bend at Tyndrum.
I wondered at the time whether those two arched bridges were Owen Williams jobs - the sculpted parapet made me think so, but I didn’t stop to check. There seemed to be another buried in the foliage alongside a new bridge carrying the road near Luss, which seemed (at 60mph) like another Williams job, but I couldn’t tell.
By Toby Speight on Sep 26, 2008
I haven’t noticed the bridge near Luss; I’ll have to look out for it when I next visit (in two weeks). Sorry I can’t add any more enlightenment!
By David Gartside on Oct 15, 2008
The concrete bridges on the A82…..
According to my copy of ‘Civil Engineering Heritage - Scottish Highlands and Islands’ published by Thomas Telford (linked to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and involving RCAHMS: Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland) - a very readable book and part of a UK wide series available from the Civils in London (confession time - I’m a member!) - the bridge over the Etive was designed by McGregor, Sutherland and Hunt, and built by tawse for £3352 in 1931-32. It’s hard to imagine that the second bridge wasn’t by the same team. The whole job was part of an unemployment relief scheme costing £512 000, building just over 30 miles of road across Rannoch Moor and down into Glencoe.
I can see why Owen Williams came to mind; what I find interesting is that some of his early M1 bridges have been refurbished and the solid parapet replaced with conventional railings - this has the effect of changing the profile from being v clunky to actually quite light, especially considering they’re reinforced concrete as opposed to pre-stressed concrete. Let’s hope at least one of the original design can be preserved/listed.
And finally - I always like the sign on the A9 outside Inverness which says ‘The North’. Oh, sorry, I obviously haven’t been paying attention…..!
Rgds
David Gartside