Lochinver Church of Scotland with Suilven, shrouded in cloud, providing the background.
When the plans for the North Coast 500 were first announced, I felt my heart sink for a second. There seemed no specific reason for this. I just felt strangely uneasy, a some might on waking briefly during a generally unpleasant dream. Perhaps it was some ingrained cynicism stirring deep down. Or maybe such responses have simply become reflex after decades of hearing of initiatives, partnerships and the mummy of them all, promoting sustainable development from government, enterprise companies and myriad quangos and their derivatives, while we wait still for the New Age of the North promised year in, year out. Grinning politicians and sundry apparatchiks in very sharp suits perform ceremonial pro forma puffs in the multiple pages of one of the largest individually-owned press empires in the Highlands, where a highly efficient centralised editorial policy ensures exactly the same song can be heard at the same time every week from the restored forests of Aberdeenshire to the Wild Lands, Rock Zoo and Living Landscape of North West Sutherland. Advertising a road didn’t seem like much of an innovation.
This story is from the No 304, February 2017 edition of Am Bratach.
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This story is from the No 304, February 2017 edition of Am Bratach.
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Council Gritters Fall Short In Assynt
‘I took to social media in the vain hope that somebody would notice’ — Cllr Currie
Bookends
“She Said He Said I Said: New Writing Scotland 35”, edited by Diana Hendry and Susie Maguire, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2017. £9.95.
Graeme At Large
Graeme At Large
A 19th Century View Of 'Wild' Land
A 19th Century View Of 'Wild' Land
Geopark Means Business This Year
Securing long-term government support is a priority, says new chairman
Fraser Darling's View Of Highland Medical Care
The “West Highland Survey: an essay in human ecology”, edited by Frank Fraser Darling, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1955. Fraser Darling (1903-79) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author who between 1939 and 1943 brought derelict land into agricultural production on Tanera Mòr in the Summer Isles. In January 1944 he met Tom Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, who was aware of Fraser Darling’s published works which included a popular weekly column on agricultural science syndicated in several Highland newspapers. They agreed his plan for a social and biological investigation into the problems of the West Highlands and for establishing an agricultural advisory and demonstration centre in the crofting areas. In Fraser Darling’s own words, the West Highland Survey was established “in order to examine in a spirit of scientific inquiry, to gather a solid body of facts for analysis and synthesis, which would serve as a foundation for a future policy for the region”. He continued: “The argument was maintained that if the problem were understood in its wholeness, solution would be possible”. In June 1944, a team which included Frank Fraser Darling as director and four young Gaelic-speaking field officers, began work. The resulting 438-page book includes the following account of the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, launched in 1913 and forerunner of the Scottish National Health Service. After thirty years, the surveyors regarded the service as an unqualified success, an enviable situation underlined by the number of able medics seeking work in the post-war Highlands.
From Our Archives
Long service nurse to be honoured by community
The Postie's Post
IF YOU are a regular reader of my postie’s posts you will probably sigh when you realise that I am talking about roads again this month. But I do have an excuse and that is because the Highland Council aren’t really that good at managing them at times.
Bookends
George Gunn, “The Great Edge”, Grace Note Publications, 2017. £12.99.
The Postie's Post
WHEN YOU consider that we really don’t have that many roads in the Highlands, the ones we do have seem to get a story from most people you talk to.
