Summer 1979, Uig, Isle of Skye
Holidaymakers on two wheels and in four are lining up ready to sail away for some summer fun in the Outer Hebrides, even if the weather’s refusing to play ball...
‘These bikes would have been longlegged enough for the challenging topography of Skye’
TWO-WHEELED MILE MUNCHERS
We get the sense that, just out of shot, there are two shivering bikers warming up over a long-overdue cup of steaming coffee.
It might be the height of summer but the two riders at the back of the queue – who we suspect might be writers for our sister newspaper, Motor Cycle News, given this shot has come from the archives of CCW’s publishers – will have done well to wrap up warm for the rather wintry weather on their long ride up the A87 to the picturesque port at Uig. Today there’s a bridge to Skye, but back in 1979 anyone coming from the mainland would have had to take a ferry to reach this point.
These Kawasaki Z1000s would have been more than long-legged enough for the succession of sweeping curves and challenging topography across the Isle of Skye – but we’re far more interested in the motley crew of Seventies family chariots also patiently awaiting the call to clamber onto Caledonian MacBrayne’s MV Hebrides for the sailing to Tarbert.
Just behind the T-registered Kawasaki is an Austin Maxi, which despite being less than a decade old is already showing a couple of blemishes in its Damask Red paintwork. There isn’t enough of it on show to decisively say which variant it is, but the chrome bumpers mark this out as being one of the prefacelift models (the Maxi 2 didn’t arrive until the year after this shot was taken, anyway).
The HC-generation Vauxhall Viva estate immediately in front seems to be faring rather better. We don’t think this one belongs to a holidaymaker, given the lack of clobber in the back – this one was originally registered in Coatbridge, so we wonder if it’s since been sold on to one of Skye’s residents.
Look closely at the Ford Cortina MkIV next up in the queue and you can just make out that it’s been fitted with a driver’s door mirror and a wing mirror – not standard fitment at Dagenham, but not an uncommon addon at the time. Being obscured by the bikes, it’s difficult to say exactly which of the 17 different variants this Royal Blue example is, but we don’t think it’s the range-topping Ghia on account of its lack of a vinyl roof, nor does it have the blacked out rear panel of the S-spec models.
Also patiently awaiting the next departure to the Isle of Harris are a Texas Yellow Volkswagen Super Beetle and a Rover P6, and right at the very front of the queue is what looks like a saloon well equipped for wintry weather, an early Volvo 240, plus a Commer Spacevan – vehicles that would remain a common sight on UK roads well into the Eighties.
The Transit MkII parked opposite it definitely isn’t being used as workhorse – look carefully and you can see its roofrack is positively rammed with suitcases. We reckon the occupants of the Renault 12 are probably on holiday, too – the trailer’s the obvious giveaway, but take a closer look and you can almost see the packets of Fizzy Orange Spangles and Rileys Crisps packed onto the parcel shelf for mid-journey sustenance.
The Cavalier’s occupants are definitely in for a comfy night, if the rather substantial trailer-tent hitched up to its rump is anything to go by. This one’s a 1600 GL in Amber Gold, and we bet its proud owner worked hard to be assigned one rather than the ‘L’ models his colleagues were lumbered with – cor, an anti-dazzle mirror, carpeted lower door trim and and a vanity mirror as standard!
According to the DVLA’s records it was last on our roads in 1987, but the vessel about to haul it to the Outer Hebrides managed even longer in service, finally being taken out of action in 2003. It ended up working in the rather warmer seas off Italy – where we suspect bikers don’t need to warm up so much.