Lighthouse war
B&B owners ordered to remove 4x4 ‘road block’ in access row
‘We’re fed up with bizarre behaviour’
STANDING overlooking the sea on one of the remotest corners of Scotland, it has always been a beacon of calm.
The 106-year-old Rua Reidh Lighthouse sits on the entrance to Loch Ewe and offers unrivalled views across the Minch to the Western Isles.
But the peace and quiet surrounding this watchtower, near the village of Gairloch, Ross-shire, has been broken by an access row dividing the community.
At the centre of the dispute is Tracy McLachlan, 54, who owns a bed and breakfast at the lighthouse with her husband Roger, 58.
They claim the six-mile road to their business from the village of Melvaig is private property.
Locals accuse her of confronting visitors and blocking access to the beauty spot.
Inverasdale Estate, which owns the land surrounding the lighthouse, has ordered the couple to move a 4x4 said to restrict other drivers from turning on the steep hill that leads to the bay.
Derek MacLeod, who represents Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh on Highland Council, has been at loggerheads with the McLachlans for almost five years.
He said: ‘I am long since fed up with Tracy’s bizarre and irrational behaviour. It is 90 per cent her and 10 per cent Roger being told what to do. I dug out a family photograph from 1959 that shows us stood next to the lighthouse keeper by our car. The logo for our village even has a lighthouse on it.’
The McLachlans were told by the council to take down no-entry signs daubed in anti-vandal paint and wrapped in barbed wire.
According to Mr MacLeod, the couple also erected gates which they were ordered to remove.
He said: ‘Tracy was asked to remove them many times but she would put them back up as soon as our backs were turned.’
Pictures on social media show rocks placed across the track to stop cars passing. Mark Williams, factor of the estate, said everyone is weary of the row. He added: ‘A 14-day notice has been served.
‘We shall be taking some action at the end of the notice period but what it is, I would not like to divulge just yet.’ Access to the lighthouse, built by a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, has been enjoyed by locals and visitors for more than 100 years.
Gairloch Community Council secretary Frances Cree, 66, said: ‘Their actions give the place a bad name for holidaymakers. It is a great place to go whale-watching. There’s plenty of wildlife and to see a storm brewing from the bay is breathtaking.’
Carolyn Elwood, 58, from Newcastle, tried to visit Rua Reidh with her partner Paul Webster, 54, and her Royal Navy veteran father Roy, 93.
She said: ‘We were driving down and a woman came charging out of the lighthouse waving a video camera at us and started screaming that we shouldn’t be there.
‘We asked if we could turn around in her car park and she refused.’
Mrs McLachlan declined to comment but insists on social media that it is a private road.