Holiday In Carbost June 2008

A Memory of Carbost.

My friend and I spent a very enjoyable holiday in Carbost this year - pity there are no old photos of the place. We stayed in the Old Inn, and later on in the Langal guesthouse, as the Old Inn was booked out. We visited the Talisker Distillery and learned how whisky is distilled, which was very interesting. We were able to enjoy the products of the distillery in the Old Inn, where we had dinner every day. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell of the Langal guesthouse told us much about how Carbost looked before the 2nd World War, when the bracken which now covers much of the land and the sheep which graze on the hillsides weren't there but many crofters' cottages where families eked out a living. The people were brought there from the island of Lewis, were given plots of land and practically told to "get on with it" - they had to build their cottages from the materials available and create a garden in which they could grow their own produce. The two ends of the cottages were made of stone and there was a chimney at each end for the necessary fires, and between the two ends the walls were built of stones, driftwood and rubble - anything available. The roofs were of corrugated iron. Nowadays one can see very few of these cottages, and most of them are ruins. In Carbost there is a jetty where boats go out to catch fish and lay lobster pots - the lobsters used to be sold to the Old Inn, but because the fishermen weren't getting enough money for their catch, nowadays most of the catch goes to France and Spain. Also in Carbost is an old cemetery, where the crofters were buried and the remains of a chapel. In the village there is a little church, a general store and a post office, and many modern houses.

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