Doing a job like this in such a remote part of the world was never going to be either easy or cheap. The nearest small town is 50 miles away down narrow roads and across a ferry, and most materials come from far further afield. To make matters worse, the local roads are single track with soft verges, so when an articulated lorry driver who doesn't know the area comes down them, there's plenty of room for problems.
This lorryload of scaffolding came down the road this morning, but the driver missed the Ardnamurchan Estate turn and ended up in the village. When he came back he had a sharp bend to negotiate at the entrance to the Estate, the verge collapsed and he was down to his axles in moments. Fortunately, he didn't block the only road out of Kilchoan, though large trucks couldn't get past.
This isn't the first time this has happened in the village, and it's the sort of place where everyone pulls together when there's a problem, so help was quickly obtained - none of the Estate heavy-lifting machines could be used because the drive was blocked. So a tractor came out from the village and, with the help of the entire Estate staff, offloaded the scaffolding. The tractor then lifted the back end of the lorry back onto the road.
The whole operation took somewhere over two hours. Many thanks to Gillespie Cameron for coming to the rescue.
Pictures and information from Ricky, with thanks.
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