Stenlake Publishing - Memories of North and West Sutherland
Memories of North and West Sutherland
Author : Christopher J Uncles ISBN : 9781840332339 Cover : paperback Price : £20.95
Memories of this most north-westerly corner of mainland Britain, from the closing years of Queen Victoria's reign until the Second World War, spill from the pages of Chris Uncles' latest book which contains over 190 carefully selected and meticulously researched images never previously presented in this format. Sutherland is a unique landscape – fashioned during a distant Ice Age, settled by the Vikings and subsequently turned into a 'man-made desert' by the notorious early nineteenth century Clearances which systematically removed a population to make way for Cheviot sheep. The range of subjects featured includes: the old 'green' drovers' roads, change-houses and inns, the early mail services, 'Big Houses', sporting lodges and hotels, the establishment of ports at Lochinver and Kinlochbervie, days at Cape Wrath lighthouse, memories of an upbringing on a croft during the Second World War, and of HMS Hood in Loch Eriboll. Highland ferries have all but disappeared, but photographs of small working ferries (including that at Kylesku) and narrow, rough roads in the early days of motoring, together with a brief history of the fondly remembered Sutherland Transport and Trading Company, will rekindle memories for many. Across this landscape strode figures who influenced the course of life for many: Thomas Telford, the Revd Norman MacLeod, the hated Patrick Sellar, the Dukes of Sutherland, William Wallace of Lairg and Robert Garden of Orkney. Set amidst the savage beauty of Sutherland's unforgettable and awesome mountain and coastal scenery, this absorbing book fulfils a long overdue need, and is one that provides essential reading about this relatively little-known part of mainland Britain.
