Gigha--A New Day

February 21, 2019--An Idaho "dusting" of snow

Our 2019 spring outing to Gigha began, as all our trips do, in our Idaho winter planning stage…it was an “if we can fit it in” excursion. 

The main 2019 goal (once enabled with a car rental), was to explore remote Kintyre and visit Knapdale’s Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological complex at Kilmartin.  It just so happened that a Gigha visit could fit…if we wedged it in on Sunday morning.   

Wedging a Gigha outing into Sunday, after spending all day Saturday, from flight to B&B, was possible because Kintyre Hire, the car rental shop, would not open until Monday.  Sunday we were afoot.  Normally, our first day on the ground in Scotland is a more sedate deal, as we reprogram the bio-clock for Greenwich Time.  To do Gigha, jet lag would have to wait. 

Saturday, April 13, 2019--Inverary 926 Bus Stop

Our international overnight landed late Saturday afternoon at Glasgow.  While not necessarily a flat out race to beat the clock, still, we had to be “determined” with our ground transportation.  Clearing airport customs, we jumped on the familiar “purple bus” (Airport Express) to Glasgow’s Buchannan Bus Station.  We did manage to trim about a half hour...barely enough to grab a quick bite from Gregg’s café in Buchannan Station before boarding the only public transport from Glasgow to Campbeltown—the familiar 926 Bus.

The 926 (a regular route run several times a day) was the last bus to Campbeltown on Saturday evening.  It put us into Campbeltown, at the end of the line, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday night.  Graciously, our Earadale B&B hosts waited up for our arrival.  Gigha would happen in the morning, early. 

 

Sunday morning at Campbeltown

  

I do not want to give the impression that Gigha was an afterthought.  To the contrary, we wanted to visit—Gigha’s Ogham Stone, Kilchattan and of course its famous Achamore Gardens.  Darla does not pass up opportunities to explore U.K.'s gardens, which almost define Britain.  Gigha was penciled into the itinerary.

Sunday, April 14, 2019--Achamore Gardens, Gigha

Achamore Gardens would also add a small connective theme.  Its famed Rhododendron collection was the planting stock used to refurbish Brodick Castle Gardens on the Isle of Arran, which we would visit the following week. 

Achamore Gardens--Echium pininana?  In any case weird and invasive

Its 54-acres now overgrown, Achamore Gardens are being returned to order, mostly as a labor of love by resident gardeners on Gigha and volunteers across the U.K.  That said, there is a commercial angle.  Large public gardens in the U.K. are tourist attractions.  And Gigha seeks to attract.  There's tourist money in them thar' gardens.

April 14, 2019--Kilchattan, lancet window looking east to Kintyre

Achamore Gardens were laid down by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Nockells Horlick, 4^th Baronet in 1945.  Peerage costing a pretty penny, it should be noted that the Horlick fortune was founded upon malted milk, as crazy as that may seem.  Horlicks malted milk business traded hands several times, following Sir Horlick’s death in 1972, until finally ending up (currently) in Unilever Corporation's hands.  (To scale it, note:  in late 2018, Horlick's Indian subsidiary traded for a cool $3.8 billion.) 

Credit:  Wisconsin Historical Society

The Achamore Mansion, however, was built earlier, by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William James Scarlett in 1884.  The Isle of Gigha, its tenancies, businesses and in a practical sense its people, were sold for £49,000 to Sir William's father in 1856 by Sir John Carstairs MacNeill (of Colonsay and the Clan MacNeill of Argyll).  At the time of the title transfer, Clan MacNeill had held Gigha, its ancestral home, for half a millennium from the Scottish Crown, with only brief interludes involving the quarrelsome Clan MacDonald.

Achamore House, Gigha

In their turn, the Scarletts sold the Gigha estate in 1919.  "Flippage" of Gigha's ownership traded hands many times in the 20^th century, until it was acquired by Sir Horlick in 1944 who laid in the Achamore Gardens. Following Sir Horlick’s death in 1972, Gigha would again repeatedly flip in rapid succession.  

Unfortunately, the Gioghach (the people of Gigha) suffered under Scotland’s feu or feudal tenancy ownership.  Gigha’s population serves as a barometer of the health of the Gioghach under feudal tenancy.  In late 18^th century, at the time of America's independence, Gigha supported over 600 people.  

The rapid “flippage” of ownership in the 20^th century, however, nearly emptied Gigha to the point that by the year 2000 (one year before Gigha was eventually sold at market to the island’s inhabitants themselves) the island held only 95 people, with derelict housing. 

White Rhododendron at Achamore

Today, Gigha is no longer under feu.  It is in the hands of its people.  With various grants, and re-examining the purpose of capital, Gigha’s population decline has finally reversed, after several centuries, and is once again expanding.  Gigha optimistically represents a new day…one of “community capitalism” versus the last vestiges of aristocratic cronyism, which still plagues Scotland’s people in far too many ways.  But Gigha?...new businesses, including sustainable energy wind generators, new housing and new opportunities are remaking its future. 

March 28, 2018--croft ruins at Baliacrach, Mull

In stark contrast, our interest in visiting Gigha followed our 2018 visit to Isle of Mull’s Glengorm Estate, where we walked the ruins of Baliacrach croft and saw firsthand the inhumanity of Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal (the Highland Clearances).

Lastly, Gigha, first recorded in history in mid-500 A.D., was part of Dalriada—under the Lords of the Isles.  Gigha has long been known as a Hebridean island with rich agricultural land (approximately 900 acres arable).  Gigha was subjugated under the Viking realm around 800 A.D. until the Battle of Largs (1263 A.D. on Ayrshire's Firth of Clyde coast) ended Viking domination in Scotland.

 

April 25, 2019--North of Largs at Wymess Train Station 

Scots celebrate the battle at Largs as an independence, of sorts.  It did change the destiny of Scotland.  So too, then, may Gigha.