Travel in Time - Thomson’s Scotland - Lochaber Series No.15: Achnacarry

For a year, photographer and history researcher Estelle Slegers Helsen has wandered around Lochaber in the footsteps of W S Thomson MBE, 1906-1967. Estelle has made a series of photographic remakes around 70 years after Thomson originally captured the landscape. She has talked to local people along her journey. Each fortnight Estelle is taking readers to a different place in Lochaber. This week she focuses on Loch Lochy near Achnacarry and the view of the Nevis Range.

 

‘How did it go?’ asks Liz when her husband David and I return to their home in

 

the afternoon after wandering around Achnacarry.

 

‘Two out of three,’ I reply enthusiastically.

 

However, remaking a series of photographs W S Thomson took about 70 years ago is not simply about ticking one box and moving on to the next. It is about searching out the locations, absorbing the landscape, listening to people’s stories, digging into history, standing in Thomson’s footsteps in the exact location and waiting for the light.

 

Liz and David MacFarlane are rooted in the area, the MacFarlanes having been the village storekeepers in Spean Bridge for six generations.

 

I met them for the first time in October 2021 when scouting Lochaber locations.

 

At that time, my W S Thomson research was in its infancy and I had many blank

 

spaces.

 

‘Tell me about this Thomson of yours,'' Liz asks.

 

With some snippets of info, she goes into her office. While David and I leaf through his Brae Lochaber postcard collection and find Thomson’s photographs, Liz returns with a sheet of paper.

 

‘Here is your Scottish photographer, dear Tintin,’ she smiles, addressing me as

 

the young reporter created by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé.

 

Liz hands me a print of Thomson’s birth certificate: William Sutherland Thomson, 1906, May 24, 6:18 am, 61 Seamore Street, Glasgow.

 

On a cloudy morning in June, David and I get into the car for our day’s mission, armed with some old pictures, camera gear and lunch.

 

At the Commando Memorial site, we hit the road to Gairlochy, cross the Caledonian Canal taking the Gairlochy Swing Bridge, and drive along the southwest shore of Loch Lochy to continue on the Mìle Dorcha or Dark Mile to Loch Arkaig.

 

When I unpack my camera at the east end of Loch Arkaig, thick grey clouds loaded with rain cover the mountains in the west. We can only see the south shore, where the Woodland Trust and Arkaig Community Forest group have bought 2,700 acres of ancient Caledonian pinewood and are working to restore it fully.

 

With hindsight, the result could have been better and I plan to return at the end of April.

 

On our way back, David tells me about the area. ‘Achnacarry Estate, the seat of the chiefs of Clan Cameron, is steeped in the Commando’s history as a Second World War training ground,’ he says.

 

‘It was the perfect area for cross-country marches, rock climbing, assault courses, live firing exercises, close-quarter fighting, field craft and living rough, all skills essential to surviving the battlegrounds abroad.’

 

David, who spent ten years in the Royal Navy, was discharged in 1971 and returned from Portsmouth to Spean Bridge to work in the family business. His military soul and his love for history make him an excellent guide.

 

Our second stop is a stone building in Burankaig along the shore of Loch Lochy, which was part of the Commando Boat Station. David said: ‘The Commandos also carried out their basic seamanship and landing drill training, using various boats: dories, canoes, rubber dinghies and small cutters.’

 

I plant my tripod a few feet from the water, where the River Arkaig flows into Loch Lochy. Only one pine has survived on the small peninsula on the left of the photograph.

 

The jetty, which had already been destroyed by the end of the 1940s when W S  Thomson took his image, is hidden below the water level, which is now somewhat higher.

 

‘The rowing boat symbolises the past,’ remarks David, ‘when Commando trainees paddled across Loch Lochy and returned at full speed for a carefully planned mock attack, determined to fight a heavily-defended section of the loch’s shore.’

 

The instructors, who acted as defenders, used live ammunition, no blank bullets and mortars. They were outstanding shooters and excelled in the art of shooting to miss!

 

During our picnic lunch, the grey clouds above the Nevis Range cleared sufficiently to fine-tune the camera’s position, so I just had to wait for some decent light.

 

From the middle to the right of the photographs, the mountains in the background are Aonach Mòr, Càrn Mòr Dearg and Ben Nevis.

 

While I take a remake, David explores the area to discover what the colourful barge in the centre of the photograph is. It is a boat for holidaymakers interested in discovering the Great Glen by bike and barge.

 

On our way back, a series of postcard views guide us to Gairlochy, the third stop for the day.

 

Thomson had a breathtaking view of the Nevis Range with the Caledonian Canal and the River Lochy running through the Great Glen. Now the scene is obscured by trees.

 

*Travel in Time - Lochaber Series is supported by the West Highland Museum and the Year of Stories 2022 Community Fund. Estelle has published a 64-page book with 30 side-by-side then-and-now pictures, which you can find in local shops or buy online. More information is available at www.travelintime.uk.

 

Photograph: Left: End 1940s © W.S. Thomson - Right: June 2022 © Estelle Slegers Helsen - Aonach Mòr, Càrn Mòr Dearg and Ben Nevis from Loch Lochy. NO_F13_TravelInTime#15_Achnacarry