A snowy winter in Ardnamurchan

"From mid-December 1981 to early February 1982 the weather on Ardnamurchan was as bad as I can remember, with heavy snowdrifts blocking the road, power cuts and temperatures of -20° for over a week at a time. The snow caused the road from Strontian to the ferry, Lochaline and Kilchoan to be blocked for a number of days, the power supply was off, especially in Kilchoan where it remained off for almost three days as the weather was so bad that the Hydro’s engineers were unable to get to the village.

"Polloch village was cut off for the longest time- the road was only opened with the arrival of a snow blower. This machine had been featured on the BBC news only a few days before after it had been used to open the A82 road through to the Bridge of Orchy- the newsworthy story being that the guests had drunk the local hotel dry during the week it had been cut off. To keep the Lochaline shop supplied the owner sent a van from his Strontian shop via the Corran ferry to Oban, then by ferry to Mull, where it could get a final ferry to Lochaline."

As told by Tony Dobson, resident of Strontian

More information on visiting the area can be found here.