Welcome to Lochinver!
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Where
Lochinver is a very exposed spot and Clachtoll, where I actually live, is
a little further North and even more exposed since it does not have
the benefit of a nice sheltered sea loch to protect it from the
ravages of the weather. Never mind, it's actually quite fun to lie in
your protected little cocoon listening to the wind rip the tiles off
your roof at 4am!!
It can also be a little expensive on the
electrical hardware side as I have lost one or two modems and
telephones, TV's, Video's etc to the lightning strikes we tend to
suffer. That along with the frequent loss of power and communications
makes it an interesting place to live. There's nothing quite like a
few days without electricity to bring a family back to their roots
again. we discover the delights of board games and reading once more,
then, just as suddenly, we join the 20th/21st century again and
become couch potatoes/ computer geeks!!
My house, was a tiny two bedroom bungalo until Summer (2001) when it became something altogether bigger! We had an extension built by "Heartland Home Services" which basically comprised of us "Raising the Roof" and putting another half storey on to the house. This was out of necessity rather than want as we were struggling for room with the arrival of the third child. The extension took rather longer than had been anticipated, bearing in mind that we originally had plans drawn up when Robyn was still a bump and she was well past her third birthday before we finally had completion.
The house is called Bron-y-Aur, which is welsh for something which makes no sense in english! however, I do not have any welsh roots or claims, I merely lifted the name from a Led Zeppelin album from the song "Bron-y-Aur stomp" on Led Zeppelin III. We have an unobstructed (apart from the weather) view all the way to the North point of the Island of Skye from our sitting room window and no close Neighbours to disturb or disturb us. We are surrounded by Lots of sheep and a herd of Highland cattle, none of which belong to us thankfully. You could say it was an idyllic spot, but, as usual, when you live there it's just home.
About
So.. now you know a little about the climate in Lochinver but what
about the place??
Well it's a small fishing village (with a huge
pier development!) on the North West coast of Scotland. The primary
industry is, of course, fishing but there are other areas of
employment, mostly centering around the tourist industry.
People
make their way here from all around the world for the Scenery, peace,
fishing and... The Mountains. Yes, believe it or not, some people do
like to climb Mountains, and in the worst possible weather so as to
pit themselves against the elements and keep the local Mountain
rescue teams busy all year round. Me? I prefer to look at them and
remain warm & comfortable at approximately sea level.
My
mountain climbing experience, in the 33 years I have lived among
them, consists of three expeditions up Quinag, mostly at Mid summer
just to see the sun not go down, however, on all of these occasions
the clouds and rain prevented us from seeing anything.....
consequently I rest my case!!
So, what else is in Lochinver? Well, we have Two small Grocery stores, a Butchers shop, a News agents, a cafe / bar, a Bistro, several craft shops, a small tourist office, a Countryside Ranger Service, a public hall recently upgraded using some Lottery money, three Hotels , a Cashline Machine!!, a ship chandlers & general merchants two Garages and a largish Health Centre. There is also a Liesure Center with full Gym facility and games hall.
There are also a couple of great beaches (white sand) one of which
is right here in my little village of Clachtoll. If fishing is your
bag, then there are some fine Trout Lochs and two or three Salmon
rivers but, I don't fish so therefore I am not much of a guide to
this sport.
We also have a local Medical Practice with two Doctors
,two (or three?) district nurses, and a 24hr manned Ambulance
with three Qualified Technicians and two Paramedics. As I am one of
those Paramedics I have prepared a page of what information I am
permitted to publish on theLochinver Ambulance Crew and Scottish
Ambulance Service in general. The content of that page is, of course,
fairly restricted by the largely confidential nature of the job but I
will attempt to give a general overview of our job here in the
community and a little about the crew
I now have access to many pictures of the surrounding area and even further afield. I will be working, over the next few (Fill in appropriate demarcations), to sort and present these images in some format or another. For the moment I will include some of the more local shots and see where we go from there.
Some mention has to be made of the source of some of these shots which came about as a direct result of this site’s existence. Some of the pictures therefore are provided by Mick & Diane Crate who have been holiday making in this area for some 30 years and contacted me recently to find out where, if anywhere, they could have digital images downloaded to CD-R. I was not sure where this could be done locally so offered to carry out this operation myself. Hence the following pictures!
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| From Heather Brae through Lochinver Village 117Kb |
From Heather brae again but wider angle 146Kb |
Some would say, the only good thing about Lochinver (apart from the Cashline machine! 83Kb |
Looking from the Bridge over the river Inver, South to the Loch (Inver) 127Kb |
Here are a few of my own pictures also. Some of these are quite old and so many landmarks that we are now used to, such as the new Pier extension, will be missing! These are also scans of pretty poor prints so I have done my best but they are not as clear as the Crate pictures!!.
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| A view from Badidarrach to the (old) Pier. 117Kb |
Another from
Badidarrach, this time out to Quinag Looks like Winter 146Kb |
My effort to
emulate the great Colin Baxter!! Lochinver bay by sunset 83Kb |
An odd night
time shot of Lochinver from, what is now, Kirk Road. (That IS the
moon!) 127Kb |
Finally, for now, here is a unique view of Lochinver that you will never have seen before. Taken in the Early 90's from the roof of number 38 Kirk Road!! Well, I was a chimney sweep after all. I have stitched this together as a Panorama so it's quite a big file, and this is a scaled down version as the original ended up at 32Mb which none of you would thank me for :))
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| Panorama from the Roof of 38 Kirk Road Lochinver 394Kb |
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Mike Rochester, Eadar Da'Sloc, Torbreck, Lochinver "The view from my Balcony" says Mike! Lucky Mike, all I can see is sea, Caravans and sheep! Still, could be worse ;) |
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2000
Last updated June 2006