Whilst looking around Skye and looking at the trackplan Armadale began looking rather like Port na Cailliche in reverse, so I quickly doodled the trackplan crewdly on top of google
maps...
As if by magic the reverse layout seems to fit in perfectly! I'm now going to look at this in more detail, but I can see more fun to be had with a real location and planning how it would have developed with the railway arriving there.
Essentially it will be a flipped version of PnC, but I think I may have to loose the tidal inlet as it just doesn't seem to tie in with the coastline north of Armadale.
This might inspire me to pull my finger out and clear the loft... I did say might though!
7 comments:
Why not make the peninsula where the pier is a tidal island and you can have a nice embanked causeway leading out to it?
I could well do, but if possible I'd like to keep the landscape fairly similar to what's actually there in real life if possible. If I ever extend It i might 'create' an inlet.
If you were to use the Armadale location would you retain the title PnC? I tried to look at the national Archive record but having easily found the records (R7712 Kew)could not access them for love nor money.
I'm not sure about the name, PnC would probably disappear and i'd use either Armadale or Ardvasar. Armadale doesn't sound Scottish enough to me (silly I know), so maybe Ardvasar.
I'm waiting for my quote on getting them reproduced at the moment.
Then again, Armadale would have developed considerably when the railway arrived and I'm going to write in to the history that the British Fishery Soc. got involved with developing the town (like Ullapool) and Lord Leverhulme developed some of the ideas he had for Lewis on Skye as he got nowhere with the residents of Lewis. Apparently Kyleakin was going to be renamed 'New Liverpool' so maybe there is potential to retain the name PnC as a name for the 'new' town...
Tom - I hadn't appreciated you were retaining the actual layout of Armadale but were building the (fictional) railway into it. I know one doesn't need to be too "literal" about these things but a couple of thoughts anyway:-
1. The BFS went out of business quite early in the 19th cent. before the light railway era.
2. Would a town be likely to have developed opposite Mallaig on the mainland? What I mean is, if a town (big village) were going to develop at one of the two locations, would it not be more likely to be on the mainland side?
3. If a railway company were developing a new settlement, would they not be more likely to name it after the wife/daughter of the local aristocrat a la Port Ellen, Port Charlotte etc.? In the late 19th/early 20th cent., overtly Gaelic names were rather frowned on. Note for e.g. the overtly English "Kyle of Lochalsh", "Leverburgh" etc.
4. Three places I can think of in Scotland called Armadale so it's quintessentially Scottish IMO but also quite English sounding so may well have appealed to the railway co.
Hope you don't think I'm just slagging off your ideas! Look forward to more updates IDC.
Hi Neil,
Some good points there, constructive comments are always welcomed, my Scottish history is a little hazy in places so it all helps.
I hadn't appreciated that the BFS went out of existence that early. Perhaps Lord Leverhulme's input would be enough for the growth of the settlement, although given the idea of New Liverpool I'm considering creating an eccentric laird in the MacDonald clan who helped his Lordship on his way to building the town.
As Leverhulme was the owner of Mac Fisheries I was wondering about him trying to establish a small fishing port, as well as a pier for entry to Skye that the North British Railway could use to rival the Highland Railway at Kyle/Kyleakin. Therefore being opposite their station at Mallaig makes sense.
Agree re. the name, perhaps it's best to retain Armadale for the reasons you've given.
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