Charlestown On Visit To Wester Ross In The North West Highlands Of Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish music, of Charlestown on visit to Wester Ross in the North West Highlands. Until 1843, when the road was built, almost all access to this remote area was by sea. Crofting and fishing, particularly cod fishing, used to be the mainstay of the scattered community. Oysters and other shellfish were also harvested for the London market. According to local legend, the harbour here was the location of a remarkable feat of archery in about 1500. After two centuries of conflict with the MacLeods, the Mackenzie family were granted this part of Wester Ross by King James IV in 1494. The clan chief had a bodyguard of archers and it is said that on one occasion the lookout high up the mast of an encroaching MacLeod ship in Loch Gairloch was hit by an arrow shot by one of the bodyguards atop the hill behind Charlestown. If true, this would have been a shot of fully 800 yards. In days gone by the women of Charlestown, like all other Highland women, were known for their industry. It was the women who carried home heavy creels of peats for the household fire, they herded the cow, and managed the cottage. But, more than all, it was the women who were mainly instrumental in producing the only manufactures of the parish, and very excellent manufactures too they were. They carded and dyed and spun the wool, they used to knit hose, and they prepared the various coloured worsteds which the weaver converted into tweeds of different patterns. Large numbers of the stockings were sent to Inverness, Edinburgh, and London. Some of the tweeds were worn in the parish, and some were sold to strangers. Smallpox is said to have been fatal here in the eighteenth century, Thanks to vaccination, it is now almost unknown. Whisky became known in the Highlands during the sixteenth century, and soon found its way to Charlestown, but it is said that the mania for illicit distillation did not reach the parish until the year 1800. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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