The Caravan Club site at Bunree sits at the northern end of what, in an earlier posting, I called "The Long High Road", just a few miles south of the little town of Fort William. But in truth, the road north has a long way to run from there and when there's time, there is nothing finer than to carry on going and just follow it.
To do this, all you have to do is drive to the site gate and
turn left - and if you do that you're
almost immediately faced with an
alternative choice. About two or three hundred yards down the road you could turn left again, towards the loch.
Now, unless your car is amphibious this is generally not conducive with further
travel, but here your left turn will take you to the Corran Narrows - pretty
much the narrowest point in Loch Linnhe - and here the loch is traversed by a
ferry which will take you, your bike or your car across to the other side.
Bikes and pedestrians travel free. I can't remember how much motor cycles cost,
but it'll cost you £7.30 to take your car. Larger vehicles and caravans cost
more.
And why would you want to spend so much money to get to the
other side?
Well, to reach the same point on the opposite bank without using the ferry involves a
pretty hefty detour of at least a hundred miles and a couple of hours, and from
the ferry landing you can go on to explore the peninsula of Ardnamurchan. We
explored this wild and - I have to say crazy - place a couple of years ago. I
might get around to telling you about it at some point, but for now let's just
say it was a very strange day out. Pink Stetsons and balloons were involved...
I can confirm that the place is worth a visit though. The lighthouse at the end of the Ardnamurchan point is spectacular - looking almost like an Egyptian column - and you can climb to the very top, from where there is one heck of a view. There also aren't many places in Britain where you
can drive across an extinct volcano that still looks like a volcano...
We were up for no such diversions however, and carried on into Fort William. The town takes its name from "Fort William", the fortified garrison built on the instructions of William of Orange (the bloke the MacDonalds of Gencoe were massacred for not swearing fealty to quickly enough, if you remember) and is known in Gaelic as An Gearasdan, literally "The Garrison", underlining the town's military origins. The town has had other names, some connected to local land owners, some designed to be less militaristic, but none have stuck. You can still see the remains of the old Fort, tucked away at the far end of the waterfront near the McDonald's and the Morrison's. In many, many years of driving past it, I don't think I've ever seen a single living soul investigating its apparently unloved walls.
The town itself, it seems, was not always named for the
fort, but was once known as "Maryburgh", after the wife of William of
Orange, and the "Mary" half of the "William and Mary" dual
monarchy. This only seems fair - it was after all Mary who had the legitimate claim to the throne. William only got a look in because he was married to her and it seems that attitudes at the time were fine with the idea that he couldn't reasonably be expected to be a mere consort while his wife held real power, so he was allowed to become king.
All I'll say about that
is that it seems to vindicate Queen Elizabeth 1st's decision to remain
unmarried. And, now I come to think about it, he got the bit with the soldiers
and she got the domestic bit? Yet more sexism!
By the standards of England and Southern Scotland, Fort
William isn't very big - although some of its flaws are, I regret to say. For
a start, if ever there was a town in need of more sensible town planning, this
is it. The A82, the main road running north up the western side of Scotland
runs right the way through it. It's the only town of any size for miles in any
direction. It ought to be literally raking in the tourism money. But for
reasons I'll never quite understand Fort William has been designed to present
its least attractive face to through traffic, and make take least possible
advantage of its considerable natural assets.
Now. I can understand why you wouldn't want a busy road like
the A82 running slap through the centre of your town - it makes sense that the
planners sent it around the edge. But they have what must be pretty much the
only dual carriageway section of the whole road running between the town and the lochside!
That's right folks - to get from the town to the water you
have to cross four lanes of traffic. The remains of the Eponymous fort which
gives the settlement both its English and Gaelic names is also on the wrong
side of the road. Surprisingly not many people have bothered to set up
businesses that take advantage of the fort and shoreline. I cannot imagine why...
Surely now, in the twenty first century it must have
occurred to somebody that a vibrant
waterfront would be an asset? Indeed, the people who own the numerous bed and
breakfast establishments which line the Lochside along the road into Fort
William from the south have figured
out the attraction. The views across Loch Linnhe are nothing short of stunning,
and yet in order to see them you have to cross a major road. It's odd.
This most inappropriate
and unhelpful of town bypasses is only the start of Fort Williams'
crimes against town planning. The A82 runs parallel to the town's main street -
most of which is now pedestrianised. Sadly, this means that anyone driving
through Fort William on the A82 - which
is pretty much everyone who travels north up the west side of Scotland-sees
the backs of all the buildings on the main street.
Let's just say that the main street is not presenting its
best face to the world.
An actual walk down the main street doesn't do all that much
to raise the spirits. There are a number of interesting and well presented
shops - but there are also a lot of empty ones. On our most recent visit in
July of 2013 I counted 14 empty store fronts, many with deadened whitewashed
windows, or worse the tattered remnants of "Closing Down Sale"
posters which give the whole place a slightly forlorn air. There are some good
things to be found on the street though. At one end you have a small grassy
area in front of the church (or if you prefer, in front of the Nevisport
outdoor shop, which is at ninety degrees to the church - given that outdoor
pursuits are basically a religion in these parts this seems strangely
appropriate) which seems to be the designated location for town monuments.
Right in front of the church stands a life sized statue of Donald Cameron atop
a tall slender but craggy plinth.
Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1835-1905) was the 24th Chief of
the Cameron Clan, Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire, and also that county's
member of parliament. His statue was erected by "clansmen and friends as
an acknowledgement of his humanity and his esteem and their respect for the
noble gentleman."
Next to him stands a squat little arch which houses a head sized bell which originally hung in the town hall but was moved to this location when the town hall burned down. The bell arch now stands as a permanent testament to the eternal friendship between the peoples of Fort William, Hiroshima and Dudley.
Yes. Yes, that struck me as an odd combination too.
I mean, I understand that many towns have formed links with
Hiroshima. If you want to promote peace and highlight the horrors of war few
places on Earth provide a more apposite example than Hiroshima. Likewise,
although I have never been there, I have no doubt that Dudley is a perfectly
nice place. Lenny Henry comes from there, for a start. Yes, that is the only thing I know about Dudley - it just seems odd to find somewhere so seemingly remote from the Highlands should be linked in such an apparently random way. I bet there's an interesting story there...
There are high points here - about half way down the main
street there is a little square which is home to a fine museum, which I most
certainly commend to you. The West Highland Museum is one of the best local
museums we've ever visited, with exhibitions relating to the fort, local
archaeology, Military History, the Victorians and the evolution of the outdoor
pursuits scene in the area. Intimate, informative, entertaining and enthralling
- and FREE! We loved this little treasure house which seems to us to be the
very essence of what a small museum
should be.
The far end of the street also marks the official end of the
West Highland Way, the oldest official long distance footpath in Scotland,
having been conceived in the seventies and inaugurated in nineteen eighty. It
runs from Milngavie (basically north Glasgow) to Fort William following old
drovers' ways, military roads and other ancient routes. I say that Fort William
marks the end, because the tradition with this trail is to walk it from south
to north. I suppose there is no reason why you can't walk it the other way around, but the simple fact is that the
tradition is partly rooted in the fact that if you start in Glasgow and head
north you avoid having the sun in your eyes for the week it takes to walk the
trail.
And before you say it, Scotland is frequently a very sunny
place.
There's a rather cheerful looking sculpture of a walker
sitting on a bench to mark the route's end, and I hope his cheerfulness starts
to rub off on the rest of his surroundings. I have a real soft spot for Fort
William. It is at the heart of one of the most spectacular areas of Scotland,
and for us at least marks the beginning of what we think of as the
"real" highlands. But still, the call of the north is strong, and we
were on our way to new adventures. But the rest of the road north is the
subject of the next post - hope to see you then...
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