Trip report: Skye, Raasay, Rona and Soay, 2015

I really enjoyed that, I have only read as far as Dunvegan so far but your descriptive writing and recounting of the mixture of legend and history that makes a coastal journey around Rassay/ Rona and Skye so fascinating is excellent. It is the sort of account I would love to keep on the boat for the next time we go that way.
 
Excellent write up- informative, contemplative, highly descriptive. I learned a surprising amount, despite it being my neck of the woods!
 
great report---what month was your trip---was there any problem leaving your car parked in portree--thanks lr
 
Pure fiction! Starts with "We were sitting at the wooden tables in front of Raasay House having a drink in the warm afternoon sun, ...." No mention of cold, rain, midges and he claims to have seen the Cuillins.
 
Quandary said:
I really enjoyed that, I have only read as far as Dunvegan so far but your descriptive writing and recounting of the mixture of legend and history that makes a coastal journey around Rassay/ Rona and Skye so fascinating is excellent. It is the sort of account I would love to keep on the boat for the next time we go that way.
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Thanks Quandary, hope the rest doesn't disappoint! I agree, these islands are fascinating places. When you are tired of them, you are tired of life!
 
Thank you for a good read. Your picture of the Soay telephone box rekindled memories of my childhood! I used to walk past it on my way to the school. By the way, you were peering through Tex's windows and even though he died in 1998, he was most certainly peering back at you!
 
Thanks everyone for your kind words.

myquest said:
Thank you for a good read. Your picture of the Soay telephone box rekindled memories of my childhood! I used to walk past it on my way to the school. By the way, you were peering through Tex's windows and even though he died in 1998, he was most certainly peering back at you!
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It must have been quite an experience growing up on an island like Soay? Which house did you live in?

The house we looked in seemed to have been more recently lived in than 1998, although it was difficult to tell. We wondered if it might have been his son (Duncan, I think?), but don't know what his circumstances are now.
 
To the best of my knowledge, there are currently three full time residents on Soay- a couple plus a retired fisherman. Another fisherman stays there during the summer months only. None of these four are Duncan Geddes so I don't know what connection he currently has with the island, although I believe he did own it at some point.
 
rbmatthews said:
Thanks everyone for your kind words.



It must have been quite an experience growing up on an island like Soay? Which house did you live in?

The house we looked in seemed to have been more recently lived in than 1998, although it was difficult to tell. We wondered if it might have been his son (Duncan, I think?), but don't know what his circumstances are now.
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When I look back at it, it was a magical place to spend a childhood although at the time I'm not so sure I thought that! We lived in the house with it's own beach at the top of the bay. You would have looked down at it on your way over the hill from the harbour to the village. We had the small half of the island and Tex had the other. The pic in my avatar was my very first craft of my own making, on the big loch when I was about 8 or 9. Duncan runs a fish operation in Orkney.
 
One of the many fascinating places on Soay, is a site on the NW shore where huge slabs of red sandstone (flags), were quarried, and loaded into boats. It is mind boggling to think of the seamship involved in handling and loading these sailing gabbarts at this totally exposed cliff face. I believe that many pavements in Liverpool were paved with these flagstones from Soay. Does anyone know more about it?
 
That sounds interesting...

I have 'the soay of our forefathers' by laurence reed, tho i need to dig it out/read it etc

We phoned home from that call box in the eighties, just after solar power had been installed. Remember walking around the island, seemed deserted then tho some folk were living there
 
NormanS said:
One of the many fascinating places on Soay, is a site on the NW shore where huge slabs of red sandstone (flags), were quarried, and loaded into boats. It is mind boggling to think of the seamship involved in handling and loading these sailing gabbarts at this totally exposed cliff face. I believe that many pavements in Liverpool were paved with these flagstones from Soay. Does anyone know more about it?
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couldn't find out much at all - the Soay of our forefathers mentions it in passing and refers you to this;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Geological-Survey-West-Central-Explanation/dp/B018O9DHJ4 group buy?? ;-)

hamish haswell smith - no mention. google - couldn't find much at all

anyone else?
 
bikedaft said:
couldn't find out much at all - the Soay of our forefathers mentions it in passing and refers you to this;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Geological-Survey-West-Central-Explanation/dp/B018O9DHJ4 group buy?? ;-)

hamish haswell smith - no mention. google - couldn't find much at all

anyone else?
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It was Oliver Davies' ex who told us about it, and we went looking for it. It's quite a long walk across the grain of the island. From seaward, you can see a short stump of a post on the top of the cliff, where the quarry was. There's a reef of rock running out, just under there, and presumably the boats came in and lay there. Rather them than me, it's fully exposed to the west. It's worth looking for, and wondering.....
 
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