
Geography lesson
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs are not on Scotland's rugged east coast. Scotland's east coast is not rugged. Try west instead.
Stuck in a flat in London, Tokyo, New York or another less lovely urban area for the pandemic? Even two hours on a Pendolino from London's Euston station brings you to a wonderland of cheap(er) beer, affable people unafraid to strike up conversation with strangers, and the undeniable benefit of cheap housing. To illustrate …
Just two hours on a Pendelino from London's Euston station could bring you to a wonderland of cheap(er) beer, affable people unafraid to strike up conversation with strangers, and the undeniable benefit of cheap housing.
My British geography gets a bit hazy beyond the Tamar, but I'm pretty sure that it takes longer than two hours to get to Scotland on a train...
If Britain was serious about HS2, it would be simultaneously starting work from the Scotland and north of England (Newcastle, Carlisle) ends at the same time as the southern segment of the route is underway. It's how the M6 was built, after all, a series of improvements that gradually all linked together, but each of which was of benefit individually.
The time savings possible for each stage from Scotland and the north of England (gradually increasing as each stand-alone stage is completed) are far greater overall, and would divert more journeys from air travel (greater environmental benefit), than do the time savings merely between London and Birmingham, where the route is as much about capacity as it is time saving (a journey pretty much short enough that the reduced journey time is more of a "handy bonus" than a real actual game-changer).
And don't start me on the idiocy of most of the stations being terminuses, rather than through stations. The lack of a through connection between HS2 and HS1 is particularly short-sighted.
All of this makes me somewhat skeptical as to whether they really do intend to extend the route north of Birmingham at all, and certainly beyond Manchester and Leeds.
3h40m will get you to Carlisle, which is still in England. You will reach the Scottish border about 10 minutes after that. If your train stops at Lockerbie, most don't, then it will take 4 hours. To Glasgow, it takes 4h50m, or a bit longer if it is one of the trains that stops at extra stations such as Lockerbie.
When I lived in Yorkshire and visiting my aunt lived neae Campbelltown there was always the decision whether to drive around the corner and come down through Inveraray and Tarbert, taking in some wonderful roads, or use CalMac Ardrossan-Brodick, amble round Arran, then Lochranza-Claonaig. The decision was often based on how much I wanted one of the great breakfasts on the first ferry...
In the wonderful sketch with Alan Bennett and John Fortune (I think, definitely not Cleese, although other Johns are available), they are discussing, well sex. John says he 'did it' with young lady, and didn't get much change out of two hours. Bennett's reply was:
"Two Hours! You could be in Leeds by then!"
Scotland is lot further.
"Scotland is lot further."
Indeed it is. The article specifies the journey as being by Pendelino, which is considerably faster than a standard train. But even so, 2 hours on said Pendelino service from Euston will only get you as far as Manchester.
To be fair, the beer is cheaper, the people are nicer and the property is cheaper in Manchester. It would be quite a stretch to describe it as a desolate wonderland, however.
Just as a warning for anyone pondering a cheeky bid - the Rest and Be Thankful road (A83) is notorious for landslides and is often blocked for weeks at a time. Frankly, the main reason I've heard of it is because of the latest news story telling us the road is closed. Again.
For slightly different reasons, I can tell you the A939 runs from Cockbridge to Tomintoul. Reason being, it was always the first road closed by snow in winter time and if any road was shut, the A939 was too. This was from when breakfast TV was on in the morning when I was getting ready for school and the road closures would flash up at the bottom of the screen.
My parents were in Tomintoul for around a decade at the end of the 20th century, used to visit them in the summer and winter - so I am familiar with the A939 and the Lecht Road was usually the first to close in the winter (and I too remember it featuring on the news).
I even stopped one August evening on the way back from Aberdeen because it was (just) snowing as you reached the top from the Cockbridge side. Of course, these days the snow isn't as reliable as it used to be...
Another cheeky bit warning ... it's in Scotland so if you win the auction you're buying the property - none of the "after a couple of weeks I had second thoughts and decided not to continue with the purchase" which seems to affect 50% of the people who accept offers on Location^3 in the rest of the UK
"Just as a warning for anyone pondering a cheeky bid - the Rest and Be Thankful road (A83) is notorious for landslides and is often blocked for weeks at a time. Frankly, the main reason I've heard of it is because of the latest news story telling us the road is closed. Again."
Agreed. On thankfully rare occasions I have to go over there. When those jobs come on, the very first thing I do is check if the A83 is open at the Rest and Be Thankful. So far, I've been lucky. The 60+ mile detour could be a pain. Or the queues for the one-way-at-a-time convoy system on the valley road. I suppose the regulars know which ferries to use and when.
Having said, it's a lovely drive down to Campbeltown. For southerners, it's very reminiscent of driving along the Cornish coast. Rugged and rocky and the sea has that gorgeous azure blue colour that seems to be relatively rare around the UK coastline.
If the A83 doesn't take your fancy then (from the linked site) there are a few of these exchanges up for auction. For example this one is by the A819 https://www.futurepropertyauctions.co.uk/property_details.asp?id=9549223
£4.9 billion in whisky exports in 2019 - and that's during Trump's tariffs. What's exported from your locale?
That's barely big enough to be a bothy! And I bet it stinks of piss round the back. There's not that many stopping place along that road with both somewhere to park and somewhere to hide behind while pissing.
Thanks for mapping the location. I'll keep that spot in mind for future trips assuming there's no one in residence :-)
From the above Scotsman link: "Three men have been arrested and charged after travelling at speeds of up to 123mph on a main road in the Scottish Highlands."
I realise that The Scotsman is a pitiful shadow of an excuse for a national newspaper these days, but that's poor reporting. The Rest and Be Thankful (and the rest of the A83) is in Argyll, not the Highlands. Argyll does also have some wonderful scenery, but the Highlands it isn't (neither geographically, nor in terms of mountainousness). Also, the location snapshot that they have pinched looks as though it's from the section of road alongside Loch Fyne, rather than Glen Kinglass. Pretty poor journalism all round.
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I wouldn't say sitting a couple of metres away from the A83 is "Getting away from it all". Maybe at 3am, but for most of the daylight hours that is a well used road by HGVs, buses/coaches, tourist and local traffic (in normal circumstances).
Interesting point, where does "being on the coast" end? Is there an official distance? Bearing in mind that the sea is 2 miles away at the end of Loch Fyne. Or do sea lochs not count? Maybe we should consult a Norwegian...
Interesting point, where does "being on the coast" end?
In estate agent speak (realtor for those west of the pond), probably Coton in the Elms...
I suspect that it counts as the 'coast' as much as an EasyJet destination* counts as the one you first thought of (sorry, booked).
*(I'm sure they mostly do send flights to the actual advertised destination airport, and it is just the very few occasions when they are unable to that get on the news.)
You're thinking of Ryanair - London Shannon airport.
You jest, but I had a potential foreign client who asked how far I was from London Oxford Airport. As the place I worked was in Fulham, by the river the answer was "Quite far". I suggested a helicopter to Battersea Heliport, they declined.
You'd have to find somewhere to put them. I'd assume if it was going to be easy to acquire any additional land it would have been mentioned.
Water may be a more serious problem - it's possible there's a main in the road, but not especially likely given the topography. Don't fancy crossing someone else's land to the river with a bucket under the cover of darkness. There was a a former Waverley Route signal box for sale some time back - at least it had a bit of land and a well.
That's not the end of the fibre, it runs far closer and there are Openreach crews rolling more out in the area. Wayleave shouldn't be a problem as there are few landowners, and there may even be an existing route to the exchange (though doubtless in pretty poor shape if it's underground).
It's certainly not a Des-Res, with fully loaded timber lorries belting past just all day just a few feet away (when the R&BT isn't shut).
The only way to get to Cairndow from London in just under two hours will be in a jet. Though it'll take considerably longer than that for Cairndow airport to be built. Unless the navy parks one of its white elephants^W^Waircraft carriers at the top end of Loch Fyne.
Maybe a roadside whisky shop? Looks like a good option - it would be easy to put a still up in the trees back off the road and downwind of the revenue officers. When I was a kid many rural areas in Scotland had excellent whisky available if you knew the guy making it.
... you would have to be completely out of your mind to buy this.
The patch of land that comes with it, is possibly big enough to build a very small house, slap bang on the edge of an A road.
Sure, it's unlikely to be that busy, but the speed limit will be 60mph - and I doubt many people abide by it.
Then there's planning regulations - probably along the lines of having to leave X metre boundary around anything you would want to build there.
To all intents and purposes, it is a totally useless patch of land.
You obviously don't drive in Scotland very often, the speedy cams are out and about every day, [and night] *somewhere*, so you exceed the speed limit at your peril. Yes there are a few who think an empty road is a good excuse for putting your foot down, but if you hit a red deer at 120MPH, hello paradise. If you hit a smaller deer you might get away with writing off your vehicle. Practically everyone I know in my locality has hit one. Best served up on a plate, zero food miles and very tasty. The A83 is not a pleasant drive except out of season when the camper vans are tucked up. If you do Glasgow to Campbeltown in under four hours you have been speeding, because you will barely average 40mph.
It looks a bit small for a telephone exchange building and I see no poles or houses in the vicinity so I suspect it is/was a transmission repeater station for amplifying analogue on buried co-ax trunk lines between distant exchanges. Nice bit of road though! I must have ridden that on my bike a few years ago.
Here is another, similar abode, just down the road from the first ... but this one is tucked delightfully into the trees.
A snip at a mere £6,000.