Raasay, Raasay Road
Road (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Raasay, Raasay Road
Classification Road (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Isle Of Raasay; Brochel Castle; Arnish; Calum's Road
Canmore ID 280365
Site Number NG54NE 76
NGR NG 591 479
NGR Description NG c. 5846 4627 to NG c. 595 480
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/280365
- Council Highland
- Parish Portree
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG54NE 76 c. 5846 4627 to c. 595 480
The location (NG 591 479) assigned to this record is essentially arbitrary. The road is recorded as extending from near Brochel Castle (NG54NE 1: NG 5846 4627) to Arnish (name: NG 595 480).
The current OS (GIS) AIB does not note this road, but indicates what appears to be its N end at NG 59422 48007.
Information from Prof R Paxton and RCAHMS (RJCM), 10 April 2006.
Build (1966)
By 1966 the lack of a road so troubled Arnish crofter Calum Macleod that he decided to build one himself using a copy of Aitken’s Road-making and
Maintenance (1900).
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
Publication Account (2007)
Raasay Road, Isle of Raasay, Skye
(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no.HEW 2540)
For many years the people in the north of Raasay had no road to link them with the more prosperous south of the island. All provisions had to be brought by boat from Portree, Skye. By 1925 this situation had become so disadvantageous that the crofters petitioned Inverness County Council for a cart road but unsuccessfully. By 1966 the lack of a road so troubled Arnish crofter Calum Macleod that he decided to build one himself. It was to be nearly 2 miles long and comprised a layer of stone, gleaned locally, much of which had to be broken by hand, surfaced with gravel and small stones to a finished width of 10 ft. Calum had no experience of road making, and began by buying a copy of Aitken’s Road-making and Maintenance (1900), for five shillings!
Calum Macleod’s road runs from Brochel Castle to Arnish in steep barren country demanding fearsome hair-pin bends, 1 in 4 gradients and a section en corniche over the sea. For ten yearsCalumworked on it single-handedly, alternating month-on, month-off with his duties as an assistant lighthouse keeper at Rona Lighthouse, 8 miles to the north (D. & T. Stevenson 1857). The Council provided tools at the outset, but in the course of the work he wore out two wheelbarrows, six picks, five hammers and four spades.
By 1976 the road was passable for light vehicles and in 1982 was adopted by the Council who spent £115 000 partly widening it, providing passing places and laying tarmacadam.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
