Plockton
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Location within the Highland council area | |
Population | 378 |
OS grid reference | NG803334 |
Community council |
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Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | PLOCKTON |
Postcode district | IV52 |
Dialling code | 01599 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Website | Plockton & District Community website |
Plockton (Scottish Gaelic : Am Ploc/Ploc Loch Aillse) is a village in the Lochalsh, Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands with a 2020 population of 468. [2]
Plockton settlement is on the shores of Loch Carron. It faces east away from the prevailing winds; this, together with the North Atlantic Drift, gives it a mild climate despite the far-north latitude, allowing the Cordyline australis palm to prosper.
Most of the houses date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was established as a planned fishing village on the northern edge of the Lochalsh, built ‘when introducing sheep farming in 1814-20 and removing the population from their old hamlets in Glen Garron, founded the villages of Jeantown and Plockton on Loch Carronside’ (Geddes: 1945, pp38).
Some maritime charts including MacKenzie (1776) and Heather (1804) mark the peninsula where the village sits as ‘Plack’, however it generally considered that the village was built on the ‘Ploc’ of Lochalsh, with ‘Ploc’ being understood in Gaelic as pimple or bump (of Lochalsh) sharing this with other places such as the Plock of Kyle and Plocrapool on the Isle of Harris. Its name in current form is based on the Gaelic name referring to the promontory, with the ‘-ton’ (from 'town') added to designate it as such in the English language, following the construction of the planned village around 1800. Over time the name of village changed to its current contracted form ‘Plockton’.
Situated on a sheltered inlet of Loch Carron, and due to the series of New Zealand cabbage palm trees which have dominated Harbour Street since the 1960s, Plockton has a distinctive ‘sub-tropical appearance’ (Nicholson: 1975).
The Church of Scotland house of worship in the village (also used by the Free Church of Scotland) was designed by Thomas Telford. [3]
The village is a tourist resort. The television series Hamish Macbeth , starring Robert Carlyle, was filmed there, substituting for the fictional Lochdubh. [4] Plockton was also used for various scenes in the film The Wicker Man [5] and the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries television series.[ citation needed ]
The village has a small general store with a café; a takeaway; a restaurant; newsagent and craft shop; three hotels with pubs; numerous B&Bs; library with free internet access and a village hall, which holds community events and art exhibitions. It is served by Plockton railway station, on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line and the short Plockton Airfield for light aircraft and microlights.
Nearby is Duncraig Castle, a nineteenth-century stately home built by the Matheson family. The castle was derelict for many years, having had a variety of commercial uses.
Plockton has been a popular location for many artists including those from The Edinburgh School (Adam Bruce Thomson, David Macbeth Sutherland) and continues to attract artists. [6]
Plockton is home to Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd - the National Centre For Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton High School, which also serves the village and a wide surrounding area. The school also hosts the Am Bàta project teaching pupils in the art of boat building, from which a number of 'local' style boats have been produced. Some have been donated to the local sailing club - Plockton Small Boat Sailing Club - whilst others have been sold to the public.
Between the years of 1956 and 1972 Plockton was home to the Gaelic scholar Sorley MacLean, [7] (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) whilst headmaster at the high-school, who introduced the teaching of Gaelic and championed shinty.
Since 1991 Plockton Primary School has accommodated a Gaelic-medium education unit (GMU) where instruction is through the medium of Gaelic. 24.4% of the population in the catchment area of Plockton Primary School reports being able to speak Gaelic – the highest incidence of Gaelic-speaking on the mainland of Scotland. [8]
From 1954 the village played host to Plockton Amateur Football Club. However, from 2016, the club has been in abeyance.
Plockton FC played at the Alasdair Ross Memorial Park and competed in yellow and black strips - reflected in their "Bumble Bees" nickname. They were formerly members of the West Highland Amateur Football Association.
The Met Office operates a weather station at Plockton, [9] for which 30 year averages are available. As with the rest of the British Isles, Plockton experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The highest temperature was 27.7 °C recorded on May 9, 2016, and the lowest was –9.8 °C.
Climate data for Duirinish-Plockton, 18m asl, (average highs and lows 1971-2000) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 14.9 (58.8) | 11.3 (52.3) | 17.9 (64.2) | 18.9 (66.0) | 27.7 (81.9) | 20.8 (69.4) | 22.1 (71.8) | 22.1 (71.8) | 19.6 (67.3) | 15.9 (60.6) | 12.3 (54.1) | 17.2 (63.0) | 29.4 (84.9) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.2 (45.0) | 7.5 (45.5) | 8.9 (48.0) | 11.2 (52.2) | 14.7 (58.5) | 16.2 (61.2) | 17.7 (63.9) | 17.5 (63.5) | 15.2 (59.4) | 12.5 (54.5) | 9.4 (48.9) | 7.7 (45.9) | 12.1 (53.9) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.0 (35.6) | 2.1 (35.8) | 2.9 (37.2) | 4.1 (39.4) | 6.4 (43.5) | 8.7 (47.7) | 10.8 (51.4) | 10.7 (51.3) | 8.9 (48.0) | 6.9 (44.4) | 4.1 (39.4) | 2.7 (36.9) | 5.9 (42.5) |
Record low °C (°F) | −8.3 (17.1) | −7.3 (18.9) | −8.2 (17.2) | −9.8 (14.4) | −9.3 (15.3) | −5.5 (22.1) | 1.8 (35.2) | −3.0 (26.6) | −5.0 (23.0) | −5.5 (22.1) | −8.2 (17.2) | −9.4 (15.1) | −9.8 (14.4) |
Source 1: 1971-2000 averages [10] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: Met Office and Voodoo Skies [11] [12] [13] |
Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It shares borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth and Kinross. Their councils, and those of Angus and Stirling, also have areas of the Scottish Highlands within their administrative boundaries.
Sorley MacLean was a Scottish Gaelic poet, described by the Scottish Poetry Library as "one of the major Scottish poets of the modern era" because of his "mastery of his chosen medium and his engagement with the European poetic tradition and European politics". Nobel Prize Laureate Seamus Heaney credited MacLean with saving Scottish Gaelic poetry.
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Kyle of Lochalsh is a village in the historic county of Ross & Cromarty on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Inverness. It is located on the Lochalsh peninsula, at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two villages until it was replaced by the Skye Bridge, about a mile (2 km) to the west, in 1995.
Lochcarron is a village, community and civil parish in the Wester Ross area of Highland, Scotland. It has a population of 923.
The Kyle of Lochalsh line is a primarily single-track railway line in the Scottish Highlands, from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh. Many of the passengers are tourists, but there are also locals visiting Inverness for shopping, and commuters. All services are provided by ScotRail and run beyond Dingwall to Inverness. In the past there were some through services to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. None of the line is electrified, and all trains on the line are diesel-powered, as are all other trains in the Scottish Highlands.
Glenelg is a scattered community area and civil parish in the Lochalsh area of Highland in western Scotland. Despite the local government reorganisation the area is considered by many still to be in Inverness-shire, the boundary with Ross-shire being at the top of Mam Ratagan the single-track road entry into Glenelg.
Wester Ross is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to the west of the main watershed of Ross, thus forming the western half of the county of Ross and Cromarty. The southwesternmost part of Ross and Cromarty, Lochalsh, is not considered part of Wester Ross by the local tourist organisation, Visit Wester Ross, but is included within the definition used for the Wester Ross Biosphere Reserve.
Bonar Bridge is a village on the north bank of the Kyle of Sutherland to the west and the Dornoch Firth to the east in the Parish of Creich in the Highland council area of Scotland.
Stromeferry is a village, located on the south shore of the west coast sea loch, Loch Carron, in western Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Its name reflects its former role as the location of one of the many coastal ferry services which existed prior to the expansion of the road network in the 20th century.
Duncraig railway station is a remote railway station by the shore of Loch Carron on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line, originally (privately) serving Duncraig Castle, a mansion near Plockton, in the Highland council area of northern Scotland. The station is 57 miles 9 chains (91.9 km) from Dingwall, between Stromeferry and Plockton. ScotRail, who manage the station, operate all services at the station.
Plockton railway station is a railway station on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line, serving the village of Plockton in the Highlands, north-west Scotland. The station is 58 miles 22 chains (93.8 km) from Dingwall, between Duncraig and Duirinish. ScotRail, who manage the station, operate all services here.
Port an Eòrna is the Scottish Gaelic name for the small settlement of Barleyport, situated almost midway between Plockton and the Kyle of Lochalsh, in Ross-shire, Scotland, in the Western Highlands. Port an Eòrna was once a fishing community near Duirinish, an area of common grazing for sheep and Highland cattle. Now it is a cluster of a few houses on National Trust for Scotland land. Port an Eòrna is a natural sandy beach. Eòrna means "barley" in Scottish Gaelic.
Loch Carron is a sea loch on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands, which separates the Lochalsh peninsula from the Applecross peninsula, and from the Stromeferry headland east of Loch Kishorn. It is the point at which the River Carron enters the North Atlantic Ocean.
Hamish Macbeth is a Scottish mystery comedy-drama television series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 26 March 1995 to 4 May 1997. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton. The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth, in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the west coast of Scotland. The title character was played by Robert Carlyle. It consisted of three series, with the first two series containing six episodes and the third containing eight.
Achmore is a hamlet located close to the south shore of Loch Carron, approximately seven miles east of Plockton near Stromeferry in the historic county of Wester Ross and within the Highland council area, Scotland.
Nostie is a small remote hamlet, lying on Nostie Bay, an inlet at the northeastern end of the sea loch, Loch Alsh in the Scottish Highlands and is in the council area of Highland. Nostie lies a short distance from one of Scotland's popular tourist attractions, Eilean Donan Castle.
Duncraig Castle is a mansion in Lochalsh, in the west of the Scottish Highlands. A category-C listed building, it is situated in the Highland council area, east of the village of Plockton on the south shore of Loch Carron. It was built in 1866 in the Scottish baronial style, to designs by Alexander Ross, for Scottish Member of Parliament and businessman Alexander Matheson. The castle remained in the Matheson family until the 1920s, when it was sold to Sir Daniel Hamilton and his wife Margaret, who owned the neighbouring estate. The Hamiltons intended to use the castle for educational purposes in the local community, but this never came to fruition and following the outbreak of World War II, the castle was used as a naval hospital. By the end of the war, Daniel Hamilton had died, and Margaret bequeathed the castle to the local council, which converted it for use as a home economics college for girls, operating in this capacity until its closure in 1989.
Lochalsh is a district of mainland Scotland that is currently part of the Highland council area. The Lochalsh district covers all of the mainland either side of Loch Alsh - and of Loch Duich - between Loch Carron and Loch Hourn, ie. from Stromeferry in the north on Loch Carron down to Corran on Loch Hourn and as (south-)west as Kintail. It was sometimes more narrowly defined as just being the hilly peninsula that lies between Loch Carron and Loch Alsh. The main settlement is Kyle of Lochalsh, located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the adjacent island of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two settlements but was replaced by the Skye Bridge in 1995.