Calum’s Road on Saturday, November 5th

This astonishing play about a man who built his own road must surely ring bells on Arran, afflicted as we are with the worst roads in Scotland. Roger Hutchinson, who wrote the original book, told the Voice how it all began. He was working on the Highland Free Press on the Isle of Skye in 1979 when a press release from Highland Council said it was considering adopting two miles of road built by a man on the small isle of Raasay. Roger went to investigate. He found Calum MacLeod carrying a telegraph pole on his shoulder, and heard the whole story.

Raasay, off the west coast of Skye, has a northern part, as separate as Arran’s South End used to be, that was once home to a hundred people. But it was hard to get into or out of. There was no road, not even a cart track – nothing but the paths that sheep had made. The crofters lived in a close community without electricity or running water, but as modern times raised the need for communication with the outside world, they started to leave. At last, Calum and his wife and small daughter were the only ones remaining. Calum had been battling with the Council to build a road that would bring supplies from the ferry crossing in the south and give them the means of connection, but the Council said there were not enough people to justify it. When Calum’s daughter started at Portree High School in the early ‘60s, she could not get home for weekends. It was the last straw. Calum began to build. He read up the engineering and surveyed the route, then started laying stone for the road’s foundations. He had no tractor or JCB, just a wheelbarrow. He finished it in about 1974.

In those fourteen years, he’d built two miles of road. When the Council at last adopted it, the engineers they sent gave it a glowing report. It was, they said, beautifully constructed. And all the while, Calum had gone on tending a working croft and walking miles each day as a postman. Roger Hutchinson recorded the story in his book, Calum’s Road, and just this year, David Harrower adapted it for the stage. ‘I couldn’t imagine how he did it,’ Roger admitted. ‘But it works wonderfully.’

Calum’s Road, together with a play for children, Tall Tales for Small People, is touring Scotland in a world premiere. It’s at the Community Theatre in the High School this coming Saturday, November 5th at 7.30 pm. Hold your firework party the next day – this is going to be too good to miss.

The childrens’ play, Tall Tales for Small People, is at 1pm on Sunday 6th November, also in the Community Theatre.