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In the Lochcarron
area the first road to be completed, in 1813, was from Kyle to Strome
Ferry.
The road from
Strome Ferry to Lochcarron was finished in 1816, Mr Mackenzie of
Applecross was the contractor - having a proprietorial interest
in the road it is not surprising that one of the Commission's reports
makes mention of 'his judicious exertions'. The rest of the road
to Contin was much slower, and in one case the contractor's sureties
were called upon to complete the Road.
Meantime Mr
Mackenzie was promoting his own interests, and was the contractor
of the road from Lochcarron to Shieldaig completed in 1819.
 The
famous mountain road to Applecross over Bealach na Ba, was not one
of the parliamentary Roads. Mr Mackenzie of Applecross built it
entirely at his own expense in 1825 and 1826. This is the third
highest public road in Britain reaching 2050 feet.
It was the Parliamentary
Roads of the early nineteenth century, which were still in existence
when we entered the twentieth century and the motor car age. The
culverts and bridges we can still see in many places are the masonry
built by the contractors under the supervision of Telford nearly
200 years ago. To cope with the new traffic, most of the roads got
their first black top of bitumen between 1930 and the mid-1950's,
the first major change in over a hundred years. Even in 1956 the
Applecross road, over Bealach na Ba, was still gravel on the summit
although there were two tarmac tracks separated by grass on the
climb up the pass.
In the early
1930's under the Crofter counties Act the Strathcarron bridge was
rebuilt, and improvements made to parts of the roads immediately
east of Lochcarron.
The breakthrough
for the whole of the North Highlands came in 1963 with the opening
of the Balgy Gap road from Shieldaig to Torridon. This had an effect
in many areas.
In this area
the Stromeferry by-pass was built in 1970; the Glencarron stretch
of the Achnasheen/Lochcarron road was upgraded to two-lane highway
about the same time; the Stromeferry/Auchtertyre road was re-built
in 1976-78.
Access to Applecross
by road has long been a problem. Up to the mid-1950s, the main means
of access was the traditional route by sea, the steamer transferring
passengers and goods to local small boats in the exposed Applecross
Bay. By 1960, a regular service, a converted fishing boat, was running
from Toscaig to Kyle daily. With snow on the pass, and storms at
sea, this was not a satisfactory transport system, and in any case
the settlements on the north coast still depended on a motor cycle
track and the sea.
In 1964, a start
was made on a road from Shieldaig to Kenmore, on the North Applecross
coast. Eventually, partly promoted by the development of the Butec
torpedo testing range, with its control base north of Applecross,
the road to Applecross was completed in 1976.
© Photograph by Ian Reynolds
Written by Stan
Forrester, with map and drawings by Vicky Stonebridge |
