Life In Cannich And Fasnakyle

A Memory of Glen Affric.

My family and I moved from Elm Park in Essex to Scotland in the last weeks of 1948. My father, Leon A. Lalonde, had accepted a position as Chief Mechanical Engineer with John Cochrane and Sons, a construction company. They had previously been awarded a large contract to build a Hydro Electric Scheme in Glen Affric. Moving to Scotland in the middle of winter was not an ideal time to relocate house and home.
On our arrival we stayed in the comfortable Affric Hotel for two weeks while Dad found us a place to live. Finally he was able to secure a small house called "Fasnakyle Cottage". It was a crofters cottage, containing a living room, one bedroom, a bathroom and kitchen. Each room was very small, but overall the place was warm and cozy and served us fairly well. We did not have running water as most of us know it. We hauled our water in a large 500 gallon tank trailer from Cannich every few days, drained it into a large settling tank a short distance uphill beside the road, and gravity brought it to the house. Heat was achieved by a wood burning fireplace. Long slabs of bark-covered wood from trees cut for the project were delivered, we had to cut them and split them for fuel. We did have electric power for light and cooking.
Our first Scottish Christmas proved to be an exciting experience and First Footing on New Years Eve was another memorable experience for our English Family.
Fasnakyle and Cannich are beautiful parts of the Highlands. Our little dog Nan, a West Highland Terrier, loved to chase through the heather whenever we went walking.
Working on the Hydro Scheme was my first job after leaving school. The camp held almost two thousand workers. There was a hospital, general store, a wet canteen and a dry canteen. A movie house (The only building still standing). A huge dining hall and lots of Nissen Huts where we each had a small cubicle to call 'home'. There was a Barbers Shop and post office. In fact we were self sufficient and Camp life wasn't really that bad. A big man named Mike Sherlow (?) was transport boss, each shift the workers rode to the job sites in the back of one of the Ex army lorries, (we had over 100 of these) and canibalized some for their parts to keep the fleet running. If a worker missed the lorry, he didn't work that shift, simple as that !.   Sherlow had the voice of a Sergeant Major and the build of a giant no one argued with him !!
I remember traveling 'up the glen' to Dog Falls, the Dam, and Benevean, ( originally known as "Beinn a' Mheadhoin") which is now buried under tons of water behind the hydro electric dam. For a few weeks I worked in the Rip-Bit Shop. This is where we sharpened and tempered the drill steels for drilling the tunnel faces. Each Rip-Bit was sharpened and tempered in one of several huge furnaces, it was hot work and dangerous as the steels were tempered in an acid bath. Mr Donald Mann was the foreman of this shoip when I worked there, A finer person was never born.
In 1995 I returned to visit Cannich and Fasnakyle, the Power Station is still in operation, but on a stand-by basis. The construction that exposed so much of the landscape has been returned to its original appearance wherever possible, and the beauty of the whole area has been restored. Glen Affric is a picturesque place to hike and visit. Proving again that the Scotish Highlands has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.
I have been searching the websites for information of Glen Affric and Fasnakyle. Recently, (December 2009) I found a site on the Affric Hotel, the present owners are seeking approval to modify and  modernize it to attract todays customers. I hope it all works out,  this building is an integral part of Cannich and should never be destroyed.
This then took my thoughts back to the days I enjoyed living in Camp and at Fasnakyle Cottage. Saturday nights me and a couple of chums, Bill Collins and Andy Anderson  would head out to an evening's dancing ay either Struy Village Hall perhaps the Hall in Camp or even Beauley. The point of this comment is to mention the great band we danced to. The Henderson Family Band. Mum and Dad were the mainstay, but Jim, two of his sisters, and a couple of his brothers all played instruments and they were GREAT !! Each week they played somewhere in the area and I'd go.!!! ANYONE REMEMBER THE HENDERSON FAMILY? Another wonderful memory of my days In The Highlands.
M. Denman Lalonde