Our village

Someone, somewhere, clearly thinks that the village we live in is worth spending a lot of money on. Tarbert is among a small handful of villages that have recently been granted substantial Scottish government funding to help regenerate the 'local infrastructure'.

How did we qualify for this? Well it seems that what we have here is somewhat unique and worth preserving. 

So let us list the attractions...

- Tarbert is a small, self-contained village and a natural harbour, protected by steep hills on either side with a narrow entrance suitable for small sea-going vessels;

- This safe haven has been home to a small fleet of fishing vessels and related businesses that have existed here for many hundreds of years;

- Today we also have a modern marina with facilities for visiting pleasure craft of all sizes. Outside the harbour Loch Fyne provides deep, relatively sheltered waters which connect with the lochs and islands of the Clyde and beyond;

- Tarbert also has a quite famous castle (largely a ruin today) which overlooks the village in a rather dramatic way and which attracts many visitors in its own right;

- Although situated quite remotely the village lies on a main road which leads on to several Hebridean island ferry routes and it is therefore a convenient stopping point on this journey;

- The whole area has a temperate rainforest climate (relatively mild with heavy rainfall) which enables unique types of wild vegetation to grow here. Wooded hills and valleys give this part of Scotland a unique look.

A census in 2001 recorded Tarbert as having a population of around 1,300 people and this remains roughly the same today. Tarbert is classified as a village but we came to live here having previously lived in an even smaller village so in many ways Tarbert feels more like a town to us. The inhabitants do, however, behave like one would expect in a small village - they are friendly, always willing to help and willingly stop for a chat in the street. There is a simple way that we distinguish between a 'local' and a visitor and this is the eye contact followed by a greeting or a smile. This behaviour does not happen with passers by in a city where eye contact is generally avoided and visiting 'townies' will behave this way here since this is what they are most comfortable with.

We have become involved in village life as volunteers in a variety of ways. Beach cleaning sessions can be exhausting but also quite fun and provide an opportunity to visit different places and to meet up with other like-minded locals.

Then there is the castle which is run by a trust and needs volunteers to keep the surroundings tidy and to look after the sheep which live in the castle grounds and whose job it is to stop the grass from growing too high. Sometimes the work parties can be quite physically demanding (this photo is me trimming a hedge in the orchard) but we welcome this so long as we can rest and recover before the next volunteer mission comes around.

I have gone a little further by volunteering to help the setting up of a local 'hub' in an unused building close to the shore, again purchased by a local community trust.

Refurbishment has involved stripping back the existing interior decor so that it can be replaced and then getting the whole place rewired. This has been rather dusty, dirty work at times but with grant money available for some professional help the place is now beginning to look more homely. Currently the volunteers are decorating the walls and the ceiling to make everything look brighter and more cared for. Once we are done the space can be used by local craft businesses who need workshop space. Again much of the pleasure comes from working as a team alongside others and exchanging jokes to make the day pass by more easily.

So what about the downside of living here. Well many people might describe our location as 'remote' in the sense that we are some considerable distance from any major conurbation. The roads leading to and from the village are just wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other and they follow the contours of the land so there are many twists and turns. Our closest dual carriageway road is around sixty miles distant and it is a further twenty miles to the nearest motorway. But Tarbert first became a place to live due to its accessibility from the sea, long before any roads were built on the land so the idea that wide roads should define a location does not seem right to us. What we would like, however, is a few cycle paths away from the busy main roads so that we could ride safely around the lovely area we live in.