Red Point Fishery
Seven photos ago I posted one entitled Hiking . We were trudging towards the ruined Fishing Station at Red Point which gets its name from the pale red/orange colour of the sand at the main beach. The track to the old Fishing Station was clearly marked for the first half mile, but after that it was a case of follow your instinct. It wasn’t too bad, all we had to do was to keep the sea on our right, but what we perceived must be the route was deep rutted mud. Eventually, I decided to cut across the fields and head for the beach. That was a better prospect for walking towards our goal.
There are the remains of two former bothies [small cottages] and an ice house at the eastern end of the beach overlooking the mouth of Loch Torridon and with views out to Rona, Skye and beyond.
The Fishing Station at Red Point was one of eight fishing stations in Gairloch parish from which the salmon cobles [ traditional open traditional fishing boats] operated. They fished here with the bag net method – more about that accompanying following photos – and salmon fishing here was once highly rewarding – as recently as 1993, over 3000 salmon were taken in a year - but by 2000 the catches were so poor that it was no longer economically viable. The station operated briefly again in 2004 but has since been abandoned and winter storms have taken their toll on what is left of the buildings.
Red Point Fishery
Seven photos ago I posted one entitled Hiking . We were trudging towards the ruined Fishing Station at Red Point which gets its name from the pale red/orange colour of the sand at the main beach. The track to the old Fishing Station was clearly marked for the first half mile, but after that it was a case of follow your instinct. It wasn’t too bad, all we had to do was to keep the sea on our right, but what we perceived must be the route was deep rutted mud. Eventually, I decided to cut across the fields and head for the beach. That was a better prospect for walking towards our goal.
There are the remains of two former bothies [small cottages] and an ice house at the eastern end of the beach overlooking the mouth of Loch Torridon and with views out to Rona, Skye and beyond.
The Fishing Station at Red Point was one of eight fishing stations in Gairloch parish from which the salmon cobles [ traditional open traditional fishing boats] operated. They fished here with the bag net method – more about that accompanying following photos – and salmon fishing here was once highly rewarding – as recently as 1993, over 3000 salmon were taken in a year - but by 2000 the catches were so poor that it was no longer economically viable. The station operated briefly again in 2004 but has since been abandoned and winter storms have taken their toll on what is left of the buildings.