Future of old fishing cottages secure

BIKE Week starts tomorrow. To mark this auspicious occasion some councillors will be getting on their bikes. At least that is what we were promised by a press release from Glenurquhart Road on Monday.

I have two bikes in the shed and would willingly cycle instead of drive for short journeys if the following conditions did not apply:

1. Both bikes are in pieces and I mean every spring to assemble them again but somehow never get round to it.

2. A bit of time has passed since I was last in the saddle and I suspect my legs may need careful acclimatising.

3. The traffic between my house and Inverness is pretty scary, especially at Clachnaharry where the railway line and the road squeeze together beside the sea.

A few years ago, when the bridge over the railway was being sorted, the road was traffic free and I walked into the city. It was very pleasant strolling along the shore, watching the herons and the oystercatchers in a fume-free zone. I didn’t cycle then because condition one above applied.

One of these weeks, one of these summers.

I WAS glad to learn last week the Landmark Trust has managed to raise the £600,000 it sought to restore the row of fishermen’s cottages on the shore at Berriedale. I mentioned in this column about 18 months ago the trust’s plan to make good the cottages and let them as holiday homes.

“Once work is completed in 2012, the cottages will be let. The rental income will support the buildings’ ongoing maintenance,” says the trust.

A little bit of the architectural history of the county is secure now. There is still a lot, though, that needs careful attention. Dwelling houses and some industrial premises such as mills that can be converted are the types of buildings most likely to receive the restoration treatment. When it comes to harbours, the situation turns more tricky.

I think I am right when I say most of the old harbours around our coast – and we have a lot of them – date from the early 1800s, when the herring fishing was still expanding.

This was the time when James Bremner made his name as a builder of harbours. His pioneering technique of placing slabs of stone on edge to dissipate upwards the explosive force of breaking waves is well known.

His handiwork has lasted for nearly 200 years but now some of it is showing signs of succumbing to the ceaseless battering it has received from storm and tide. Patching has had to be done, sometimes quickly, by the council.

Of course I do not expect workers to abandon modern equipment and revert to the hammers, chisels, tackles and horses of Bremner’s day but the replacement of tumbled stone with concrete is not very bonny, although in time the white concrete weathers and mellows a bit.

“Are there architects or builders who specialise in old harbour-building techniques as there are for other types of construction?” I asked the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Veronica Fraser, the secretary of the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group, replied to say it is indeed interested in harbours and in spring last year held a conference in Caithness and visited the harbours at Castlehill and Sandside.

Sandside and Keiss harbours, for example, are “A” listed. When it comes to fixing them, I believe the council has to seek the view of Historic Scotland and that now a considered approach that seeks to preserve the historic fabric has replaced any former attitude less mindful of the significance of the design.

Cost comes into it. It would not be realistic to reopen an old quarry to obtain the right kind of stone.

Also, a harbour is a working environment where the safety of the people using it needs to be taken into account. A fixed-steel ladder may not look as picturesque as a flight of stone steps built into the wall but it is probably safer. Standards change.

In Hayle in Cornwall, however, I noticed recently plans have been made to restore an old quay with natural granite blocks to match the existing stone work.

IN February I wrote about how forestry is changing the face of the county. This does not please everyone, including the reader who sent me an anonymous letter on the subject.

Soon, wrote this person, people who at the moment can look across the land and see Morven on the skyline and the farms and houses in the Thurso river valley will see only trees. “On a stormy winter night it is comforting to see your neighbours’ lights – that will be a thing of the past.”

The letter ended with the assertion people in Caithness like wide, open countryside. I think I can understand that.

We are used to seeing far, we are used to the untrammelled wind and the big sky. In densely wooded country, as exists in areas around Inverness, I can sense the claustrophobia.

Away back when I was a student of biology at Aberdeen, the books of Robert Ardrey were popular. I haven’t read them since and I have no idea how they rate now in academic circles, if they ever scored very high, but they sold in enormous quantities and were very influential.

If I mind right, Ardrey wrote about how humans evolved as hunter-gatherers in a savanna-like landscape, that is, an open one with woods and stretches of grassland between.

So, perhaps it is the balance between elements in the landscape that matters. Some woodland, some open space, and that is where we feel most comfortable.

The featureless flatness of the American prairie or the Russian steppe impresses us but I prefer a landscape with some variety. The great thing about Caithness is there is enough roll in the land to give it some shape before we come to the scenic jewel of the cliffs.

I would not like blanket forestry but woodland, planted where possible with regard to the contours of the land, is more likely to enhance than detract from the prospect. But there you have differing points of view.

WE can all be caught out by deadlines. You may have seen the wee bitty in italics at the end of my last column. This was to inform you I had written about the future of rural schools before Mike Russell had come along and said keep them all open.

That was a fairly minor happenstance. I recently came across a bigger one in the latest newsletter from the European Committee of the Regions.

The leading story is headlined “Local authorities play their part in Scotland’s renewable revolution,” and opens with a picture of our leader, First Minister Alex Salmond.

It goes on in familiar fashion about councils playing a crucial role in ensuring the realisation of Scotland’s ambitious plans for renewable energy. “While the EU has set its members the official target of generating 20 per cent of their energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, the Scottish Government’s self-imposed target is to produce half of its electricity needs from renewables by that same date.”

It gives details about several worthy projects and then, near the end, we read: “Other examples of successful private-public partnership include Caithness Heat and Power, which is implemented in partnership with the Highland Council.” Somebody should tell them.