Crofter Calum MacLeod 63 shoulders his shovel after another days work on the road ... his OWN road on 29th April 1973.
Calum was a Local Assistant Keeper of Rona Lighthouse and the part-time postman for the north end of Raasay.
After decades of unsuccessful campaigning by the inhabitants of the north end of Raasay for a road, and several failed grant applications, Calum decided to build the road himself. Purchasing Thomas Aitken's manual Road Making & Maintenance: A Practical Treatise for Engineers, Surveyors and Others for half a crown.
Over a period of about ten years between 1964 and 1974, he constructed one and three quarter miles of road between Brochel Castle and Arnish, using little more than a pick, a shovel and wheelbarrow. Initial blasting work was carried out and funded, to the sum of £1,900, by the Department of Agriculture's Engineering Department, who supplied a compressor, explosives, driller, blaster, and men.
Several years after its completion, the road was finally adopted and surfaced by the local council. By then, Calum and his wife, Lexie, were the last inhabitants of Arnish.
Rather amusingly Calum didn't drive any further south than Bochel near Tomnavoulin as he never held a drivers licence!!! Read more in the link below.
Check out the landward clip in the video above.
