Why this book:  I was recently on a bike ride with my son Brad in Scotland and we rode on the Island of Raasay, and rode all the way out to Calum’s Road.  I heard the story from our guide, who then bought us this book  My son and I rode Calum’s road – wish we’d read the book beforehand. 

Summary in 3 Sentences:  Calum MacLeod lived in a small village at the north end of the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay with just a few other families.  These families over decades petitioned the Scottish government for a road to lead to their village – which the various bureaucracies involved refused to do. This book is about the life and death of those villages and how one man, Calum MacLeod as a statement of resistance, decided to build the road himself and it took him decades.  

My Impressions: Short and powerful.  Beautifully written – fascinating, sad and joyful to read.  Calum MacLeod and his road on Raasay are a prism through which the author looks at the demise of small villages and crofter culture on remote islands in the Hebrides.  Though the book provides background from the 1800s, this story takes place primarily between the mid 60s and the early 80s of the 20th century.

The story of Calum’s Road is an extreme example of an independent, and powerful personality choosing by his actions to defy a government which doesn’t seem to care about him, his family, his village and way of life.  In Calum’s Road, we learn about the history of Raasay over the previous two hundred years, how the crofters and small villages were repeatedly exploited and abused by wealthy absentee land lords who owned the island, only as a financial investment and cared little for the people who lived there.  Raasay experienced its own version of the Scottish Highland Clearances, when the the great land barons of Scotland drove people from their homes and crofts and depopulated huge sections of Scotland in order to make room for sheep and deer to graze – the deer were hunted by wealthy gentlemen from England, Wales, Scotland who paid well for the opportunity to hunt on the property of the landlords.  The sheep and the wealthy hunting patrons provided easier and more money than dealing with the problems of tenant farmers, and collecting their rents. 

The culture of Raasay was broken into the north and the south of the island – the north end was farthest from the standard ferry landing and received the least support.  Calum lived in the village of Arnish which lay approximately 1 1/2 to 2 miles beyond the one road on Raasay that went from North to South. Those in Arnish and the several villages beyond had to walk and carry their goods on their backs on a path from the end of the road up to several miles to their villages.  This and a number of other factors that made life in the northern portion of Raasay difficult and even untenable, over a several decades led to all of the people in those villages either dying or leaving.  By the time Calum finished his road, he and his wife were the only ones living there.

In Calum’s Road, we hear the voices of those who grew up in and lived in those villages, talking about their lives there, talking about how they purchased food and goods from Skye, worked to make a living by whatever means were available, how they survived, and why the finally left.  They also talk about Calum MacLeod as a man and his project to build the road, on his own, in his spare time.   Calum himself was one of the strongest characters and personalities on north Raasay, and was the one others  looked to for help when they needed it, and was the most engaged in trying to save the villages.  He felt  a strong sense of duty to his community and to his ancestors who had lived and thrived in that part of Raasay, and did whatever he could to preserve that heritage.  We  read about Calum’s unsuccessful efforts over many decades to get basic government services to the villages in that part of Raasay – to include the road. So finally, convinced that the large centralized bureaucracy of the government could not be counted on, he began to build the road himself. 

In fact his building of the road is just one example of his amazing character.  He not only ran his croft, but also had been postman, lighthouse keeper, and fisherman and had a number of other jobs.  He and his brother had previously built a different short road in north Raasay to support the families isolated on the island of Fladda, just off the coast of Raasay.  Calum was an autodidact – he had no education beyond his 14th year, Gaelic was his first and primary language – English he had to learn.   Yet he was widely read, in both languages, wrote many articles and letters to governmental bureaucrats  and the press (all in English) about how the people in North Raasay were not being given a fair shake,  and he rightly predicted that government policies and neglect would lead to the depopulation of a whole section of Raasay.  He twice won awards for his writing and was regularly sought out by journalists for his character and comment.  He became a recognized expert on the history of Raasay – especially of the exploitation of the crofters by wealthy outsiders. But Calum MacLeod was no socialist – had no trust of centralized government.  He was much more of a libertarian, though he would never have identified himself as such.

Eventually his pressure, his notoriety, the positive attention his efforts got in the press had the intended effect, and the government chose to complete the  rough road he’d built with tarmac and other features of public roads, and completed it in 1982.  By that time Calum was in his mid 70s and was pleased that his efforts had paid off, but by that time, he and his wife were the only one’s living in northern Raasay.  Calum passed away in 1988.

The story of Calum’s road is well known in Scotland and a popular Scottish Strathspey is named for it.   On youtube you can meet Calum and get a good overview of Calum’s Road in a very short (4 mins) video  at https://youtu.be/LUh6ROorRUo?si=E6N3Imc_tGEAeipF   Another very short piece with some great pics can be viewed on TikTok at: https://youtube.com/shorts/n9KmJKDYat0?si=A86njZtkny_3Ezrmhttps://youtube.com/shorts/n9KmJKDYat0?si=A86njZtkny_3Ezrm

I really enjoyed this short book – it gave great insight into the how and why Scottish Highland culture has changed over the 20th century.    I just wish I’d read it before I actually rode that road that Calum built. I would have spent more time at the end visiting the abandoned crofts and village just a few yards beyond the end of the road.