Port Gower's reason for existance?

[rockchick]

I drove from Caithness to Inverness this week, and on the way drove through Port Gower, as you do.

What do people DO there? It's a zillion miles away from anywhere, and no industry as far as I can see.

Does anyone know?

[peedie wifie]

Have you ever seen anyone there? I must have driven through there a hundred times and more and I've never seen a soul walking about.:confused

[Fluff]

There has been a few times I have gone past and there have been a fair few cars at the community hall

[The Angel Of Death]

I call it the ghost town standing joke is to see how many people you can see there while passing through our record is 2 once

[Cazaa]

Drive through in May this year - you'll notice that they've even got a Polling Station!

[Bill Fernie]

a few years ago in an earlier version of this message board some asked simply

Why Is Portgower?

Although a few comments were made I seem to recall it stuck with me and one day a couple of years later when passing I turned off the road and went knocking on the doors and asked the question as above. As you all probably know by now from the tentacles of this web site I am nothing if not inquisitive.

Even I was surpirsed that within two doors of knocking I had the answers. Apparently athe Duke of Sutherland had a French factor and he asked him to establish a crofting village. The French factor had no idea of a crofting village and had it designed in the French style with houses in group. This hardly endeared him to the crofters in the decades that followed as the crofts were in the Scottish tradition in strips and the Portgower crofters unlike their counterparts elsewhere who had houses on the strip had to walk miles each day to tend their sheep and grow crops.

So in essence we have something of copy of French village here and once you take walk round with this in mind you begin to see it.

The port of Portgower is break in the rocks where small boats used to come in.

So there you have it and mostly folk now are crofters or retired and shop in Helmsdale or Brora. I picked up a lot more information and spent half an hour speaking to one resident who has huge amount of family history all written up.

So scratch the surface in Portgower and you will find lots of interest. I am still not too sure what they do to pass the time other than walks and the village hall.

See it at http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/portgower/index.htm

[changilass]

We have a theory that it is where the aliens live, which explains why you never see anyone but lights are on in different houses every time you pass. If you have an outside temp guage on your car you will also notice that the tem rises by at least 1 degree when driving through.

[the charlatans]

i think this is a standing Caithness joke, spot the person in Portgower.

However i can confirm there are lots of people living there, i think i'm related to half of them!

[Mad1man]

During a car breakdown a couple of years ago residents there came to the assistance of my brother who was taking my 90 yr old granny south - tea and other 'facilities' were freely offered while they waited for the AA. It may be quiet but the fowk there have hearts of gold!

[ywindythesecond]

a few years ago in an earlier version of this message board some asked simply

Why Is Portgower?

See it at http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/portgower/index.htm

Thanks Bill
When my children were growing up, CB radio was in its prime. Portgower was known as "Electric City" because of the street lights.
ywindythesecond

[bothyman]

Thanks Bill
When my children were growing up, CB radio was in its prime. Portgower was known as "Electric City" because of the street lights.
ywindythesecond

>>
http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/brora/index.htm

The Electric City is a few miles down the road from Portgower

[candyfloss]

Every time we go to Inverness we have a competition, a prize for the first person to spot anyone :D i think we saw someone once. It really is like a ghost town :eek:

[rockchick]

<snip> So in essence we have something of copy of French village here and once you take walk round with this in mind you begin to see it.

The port of Portgower is break in the rocks where small boats used to come in.

So there you have it and mostly folk now are crofters or retired and shop in Helmsdale or Brora. I picked up a lot more information and spent half an hour speaking to one resident who has huge amount of family history all written up.

So scratch the surface in Portgower and you will find lots of interest. I am still not too sure what they do to pass the time other than walks and the village hall.

See it at http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/portgower/index.htm
Thanks for this Bill - it makes sense now!

[ywindythesecond]

>>
http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/brora/index.htm

The Electric City is a few miles down the road from Portgower

Thanks Bothyman,
Interesting link and interesting that there was a historical background to the "Electric City" used by CB radio enthusiasts.

[plumber]

Portgower is an over spill from helmsdale, there are people living there, but they are hiding from the caithness warriors. Finer people you will not meet.

[r.rackstraw]

I remember that Caithness FM once had a competition to see who could spot the most people while driving through Portgower.
I am sure it is none the worse for being a quiet place though!

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

While all the folk in Port Gower are hiding behind their curtains sayin"Look at aw they nutters trying to spot us again.Man they even sent that Fernie fella to Hughies door to see what we were aw aboot."Its simple....their all shy.....except for one.:lol: :lol:

[caithness lad]

the late counciler Andy murray came from portgower:Razz

[selkie]

Someone else raised the question of Portgower to me before so I found out a bit then. Portgower had the same origin as Badbea being a clearance settlement. Families were forcibly moved from inland about 1813 to eke out a living on the narrow coastal strip between the hills and the sea.

It has lasted longer than Badbea as both the main road and the railway pass through it giving it more contact with the wider world. Portgower belongs to the crofting tradition of "three acres and a cow" - a subsistence way of life.
It played its part in crofting history including land raiders. Many of its young men marched off to war in 1914 and 1939. It once boasted two shops and a school.

Fifty years ago there would have been 20+ crofters, many employed at the Helmsdale railway depot in steam days. Since then the crofters have dwindled to about three and a lot of retired people have bought the empty houses.

Hence why few people are seen. Older folk and a frenetically busy A9 do not mix well!

[futurelegends]

I call it the ghost town standing joke is to see how many people you can see there while passing through our record is 2 once

About seven or eight years ago the Two Daveys on the Double 'D' Country Show on Caithness FM 102.5 ran a competition to spot the most people when passing through Port Gower, it ran for weeks before anyone was spotted at all.

Eventually One Eagle-Eyed Listener claimed that they saw 9 people at the one time, on hearing this Davey Groat exclaimed it must have been their 'Gala Week'.

[johno]

i used to drive through portgower every monday, wednesday and friday for about two years, [this was 91 & 92]at roughly 6. 30 pm on those nights, and there was always this old guy sitting on a wall smoking a pipe.
he was always there rain or shine on the right hand side as you go north.
guess he must have been the sentry??.
:roll:

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Rapsons Coaches stop regularly in Portgower and pick up passengers taking them to Brora or Golspie.