Before the coming of the road and the motor car, the children of Sanna, a remote crofting village at the western end of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, walked to school. In this, they were no different from children anywhere else in Scotland, but the journey they took each school day would have made modern children pale with horror.The village is seen in the distance to the right of the top photograph. The children walked along a track just inland from the beautiful beaches which are now a visitor attraction. They then followed the path seen in the foreground, climbing steeply to cross a low ridge. A small stream runs down the path, making it muddy and slippery underfoot.
As the path crests the first rise, just before it starts to fall away towards the neighbouring village of Portuairk, the school path forks to the left, cutting across the top of a steep, heather-clad slope as it follows the back of the ridge inland.
From the path, there are fine views across the valley of the Sruthan Bhraigh nan Allt to the village of Portuairk, but this valley runs roughly northwest-southeast, so the bitter winter winds and lashing rain would have been funnelled down it, buffeting the children as they walked.
After two miles of rough walking, Achosnich School - the building on the left of this picture, now a private house - would have come into view. The school served a number of villages including Achosnich, Portuairk, Sanna, Achanaha and Glendrian.The road network reached the end of the peninsula in the 1940s and early 50s. Achosnich School, which had once held over 40 pupils, closed, and the children were transferred to Kilchoan school.
Sanna's children still go to Kilchoan, but they travel in the comfort of a four-wheel drive vehicle.
The walk from Portuairk over to the old school was one of my late father's favourites, and always the first he took when we arrived at the cottage. I still love it, bogs and all!
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