Lockdown to Unlock Nostalgia - and a story of a lock out.

Armchair hill walking in lieu of the real thing.

I enjoyed reading chapter 10 in 'More Wilderness Walks' by Cameron McNeish and Richard Else.  Called 'Beinn Dearg and Easter Ross - a mountain odyssey'.  Odyssey is a lovely word, meaning a long journey or a spiritual quest.  "An extended adventurous voyage or trip."

I read with my map that I used when I climbed the Munros and Munro Tops first in the 1980s, 90s and 00s and the Corbetts from 2008 to 2019.  I remember visiting the Croick church that saw, in 1845, the local people sheltering from the wind and rain on the eastern side of the church after they had been cleared off their land to make way for sheep.  There are tragic messages scratched on the glass of the east window.  They believed they were not allowed in the church building, even in torrential rain.  Or, were they locked out?

from http://www.croickchurch.com/churchatcroick.htm
" ... they were allowed to shelter in Croick churchyard, exposed to the elements, wishing, as it is recorded, that death would come to allow them to join there forefathers beneath the sward. They were helped only by the minister, who did all in his power to ease their condition.

"As the people passed the weary days among the tombs someone among them, scratching idly on the diamond-shaped panes of the east window, left a short pathetic message for posterity. In the unhurried copperplate writing of last century we can still decipher some of the names: "C. Chalmers" "John Ross, Shepherd, parish of Ardgay" and others and, bowing meekly to what was accepted by a God-fearing people as Divine chastisement – "Glen Calvie people, the wicked generation" "Glen Calvie people was in the churchyard here May 24^th 1845" – The words "Church Officer" also appear under the name "Ann McAlister", but it is probable that the designation refers to an illegible name scratched below. It is highly unlikely that a woman be acceptable as Church officer in the middle of the last century, in a community such as this one.

"Why were they not allowed to shelter inside the Church? I suggest that the answer is simple. In those days this would have been regarded as desecration of a holy place, and even under such necessity, and if invited by the minister, they would probably have refused."