A Walk Home from School

These days, most children are driven to and from school, be it in a parental car or school transport. In the old days they walked, whatever the weather and the distance, and a good example of this walk is the one the Achnaha children did to and from their school, which is some two kilometres as the crow flies but somewhat further by the path they had to follow.

The school is just to the northeast of Achosnich. The photo above shows the Old School House, now a private dwelling, with a newer house near it and some of the houses of Achosnich in the distance. The schoolroom is on the left, the teacher's house on the right. The school served several of the surrounding villages, including Portuairk, Sanna and Glendrian as well as Achnaha and Achosnich; at its height it had a capacity of 68 children.

To walk we took followed the children home. We left our car at NM448667, where the track to the school leaves the Kilchoan-Portuairk road - a sign, "Old School House Path" points the way. At the school we walked up between the old building and the new, and turned sharp left at a wooden sign: the path seems to go on up the hill, but this is a dead-end. The direction is obvious once another sign is spotted on the skyline.

The path, narrow and very rough in places, traverses the hill before turning eastwards to plunge into a steep-sided gorge, Bealach Ruadh, where Bealach means pass, gorge or gap, and Ruadh means red or brown. This photograph above, taken from the summit of the hill immediately to the north of Bealach Ruadh, looks across the valley towards Achosnich.

This photograph looks back along the path, with Bealach Ruadh in the middle distance. It gives some idea of the rough terrain the children had to cross. Even in good walking boots and on a fine day, it makes hard walking. On a winter's day, with heavy rain and a howling gale, the journey must have been a misery for the Achnaha children.

Once through the valley, the path is well-signposted. Beyond the sign pictured here can be seen the village of Achnaha.

The path leads straight to the village. Once the stream Allt Uamha na Muice - which seems to translate as the stream of the cave pig - is forded, the path leads up, through a gate, into the Achnaha croft fields; for those who want to avoid disturbing livestock, the fence can be followed to the right, which leads to the road just south of the village.

If the Achnaha children had a tough walk to school, those from Glendrian, another two kilometres further away, had it even tougher.

A satellite image of the area is here.