February to March 2011
We were lucky in February to have the use of a cottage belonging to our friends Margaret Lobban and Lan McDonald at Achnacroish Weather was dark, dreich, sometimes very bright and clear, but definitely cold. Full of energy and good faith we started our project. Cycling up to the site 6 miles away to labour daily. First work was to clean out the derelict barn of about a 100 years of muck and plan the road and all the infrastructure. Duncan Livingstone from the neighbouring croft brought his wee digger and moved the main bulk of the dung, leaving us to scrape and brush the remaining stones clean. Sebastian worked like an archeologist and unearthed a beautiful stone byre and cobbled barn floor. Finding good waterproofs proved to be a major issue for us both. In the end Sebastian opted for road worker's bright yellow garb. The trousers were a bit large and as he kept on loosing weight all the time, a sturdy pair of braces turned out to be the only solution. Road works were started with quarrying rocks from our site by Ronny MacColl from Appin. The amount of rock used could have built a cathedral and I questioned the need for such volume, but, it turned out to be a good road so what do I know.
 The track to the site  Duncan Livingstone |
 The emerging barn floor  Digging holes to test the ground |
 Winter landscape Lismore looking North |
 The big digger arrives on the island |