Rest and Be Thankful
| Rest and Be Thankful | |||
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Pass summit with Loch Restil, view to the north |
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| Compass direction | east | west | |
| Pass height | 245 m | ||
| region | Argyll and Bute , Scotland , United Kingdom | ||
| Watershed | Croe Water | Kinglas Water | |
| Valley locations | Arrochar | Cairndow | |
| expansion | Pass road | ||
| Built | 1748 | ||
| Mountains | Arrochar Alps | ||
| Map (Argyll and Bute) | |||
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| Coordinates | 56 ° 13 '38 " N , 4 ° 51' 28" W | ||
Rest and Be Thankful , in German: Rest and be thankful , or The Rest for short , is a mountain pass and at the same time a pass summit in Argyll in the west of Scotland . The Gaelic name of the top of the pass is Bealach an Easain Duibh .
location
The pass lies in the Arrochar Alps , a low mountain range in the traditional county of Argyll, now the administrative district of Argyll and Bute . Towered over by Beinn Ìme and Beinn Luibhean in the east, the Beinn an Lochain in the west and the Ben Donich in the south, it connects the Glen Croe valley, which drains to Loch Long, with the Glen Kinglas, which drains to Loch Fyne . The Loch Restil mountain lake is located just north of the top of the pass . The pass, east approach and the upper part of the northwest approach from Butterbridge are in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park .
The pass and access roads used to belong entirely to the former Civil Parish Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich . Today the parishes of Lochgoil , Cairndow and Arrochar and Tarbet share the area, their borders meet on the north bank of Loch Restil.
history
The pass has been used since ancient times by travelers, but especially by livestock herders, their herds of cattle from Argyll to the farmers' markets of the Lowlands brought. The road was only expanded in the course of the 18th century. As a result of the first Jacobite Uprising in 1715 , the British officer George Wade was commissioned by the Crown to make suggestions on how to better control the remote area. Among other things, he recommended the construction of a network of paved military roads, including the one through Rest and Be Thankful. But it was not until 1743 that construction of the road began under Major William Caulfeild , who had succeeded Wade as responsible for the military road system in the region. Interrupted by the second Jacobite revolt in 1745 , the route over the pass was completed in 1748, the continuation to Inveraray was completed in 1749. At the top of the pass, a stone bench with the inscription Rest and thankful was built , from which the pass got its name.
In 1768 the pass road was renovated and handed over to the civil administration in 1814; a memorial stone commemorates these events. With increasing motorization from the beginning of the 20th century, the route increasingly proved to be no longer able to cope with traffic requirements. In the 1920s and 1930s, the western approach was initially expanded and partially straightened. An eleven-kilometer-long new construction of the eastern driveway on its own route planned for 1931 was initially postponed due to an economic crisis and only started in 1937. This new route on the northern slope of the valley had a more even gradient, but was prone to landslides .
The old military road, which followed the valley and only rose steeply just before the top of the pass, was preserved and was regularly used for motor sport events, especially hill climbs . A particular challenge was the hairpin turn just below the summit, which is also therefore as devils elbow , in German Devil's Elbow was called. The later three-time Formula 1 world champion Jackie Stewart , who himself drove a Marcos in a race in 1961, had seen his brother Jimmy take part several times as a teenager . The track and the surroundings had made a lasting impression on him; in retrospect, he referred to Rest and Be Thankful in his autobiography as the “cradle of his motorsport life”. Due to the increasingly poor condition of the road, regular racing was discontinued in 1969, but in the following years there were still isolated motorsport events with historic vehicles .
After an increasing number of landslides had occurred on the new south-eastern driveway from the mid-2000s and the road had to be closed again and again, the old military road in this section was repaired for 3.7 million pounds . Opened in spring 2013, it has since served as an alternative route in the event that the main route should not be passable. Outside these times it is closed to public transport. The alternative route is gradually being expanded; work was still in progress in 2015.
Current condition
The ball is now through the highway A 83 opened up, which in Tarbet from, Glasgow with Inverness connecting A 82 branches off. After only a few kilometers, it turns into Glen Croe and heads west over the pass and on to Inveraray and Campbeltown . It thus connects the south-west of Argyll with the greater Glasgow area in the east. As of 2013, the pass road is used by up to 5500 vehicles per day in summer and between 2000 and 4000 in winter. At the top of the pass, the B 828 branches off in a south-westerly direction to Lochgoilhead and Hell's Glen .
At the top of the pass there is a parking lot for hikers, as well as two webcams and a weather station, which can be used to view the current road conditions online. On the east side, immediately below the top of the pass, the remains of a small defense system of the British Home Guard from the time of the Second World War can be seen, consisting of three shelters and four mortar positions in which anti-tank weapons of the Blacker Bombard type were mounted.
Since the renovation of the old military road, an association of Cobra friends has again held an annual hill climb. In addition to certain Cobra versions, a narrowly limited selection of other historic sports cars is permitted. The construction of a visitor center with information on the history of the racetrack is planned as of 2015.
The passport in culture
The British poet William Wordsworth dedicated a poem called At the Head of Glencroe to the pass . The pass and the top of the pass were used variously for filming, for example at Angels' Share and My Name is Joe from Ken Loach or Restless Natives from Michael Hoffman .
Web links
- A83 Rest and Be Thankful on the website of Transport Scotland (English)
- Brian D Osborne: History Of The Rest And be Thankful , Scots Magazine, October 2005, on the Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui Historical Association website
- Ronnie Morrison: The glory days of Rest and Be Thankful . Hill climb information on a website with news from Argyll
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ordnance Survey , OS One-inch, 2nd Edition, Scotland, 1898–1904: Sheet 37 Inveraray and Sheet 38 Loch Lomond on the Scottish National Library website , accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ Representation of the boundaries on the UA Argyll and Bute map server ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ The shrines at Rest and Be Thankful. Report on grave plaques placed below the hairpin on a website with news from Argyll, accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ Jackie Stewart: Winning Is Not Enough . London 2009, ISBN 0755315391 , preview on Google Books, directly to the section (English)
- ↑ a b Maggie Barry: The A83 Rest and Be Thankful military road gets first convoy. Daily Record, March 1, 2013, accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ Landslide mitigation efforts continue on A83. Transport Scotland press release of July 21, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ East Camera and West Camera on the Traffic Scotland website, accessed January 5, 2016
- ↑ Entry on Home Guard Stop Defense in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
- ↑ Entry on Memorial Stone in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
- ↑ The Cobra Drivers At The Rest & Be Thankful. Information on the 2016 race on a website with dates for events with historic vehicles, accessed on January 5, 2016 (English)
- ↑ Rita Campbell: Sir Jackie Stewart backs plans for Rest and Be Thankful The Press and Journal, August 7, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016.
- ^ At the Head of Glencroe . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed.Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. Scotland: Vols. VI-VIII, 1876-79. Bartleby.com, accessed January 6, 2016
- ↑ Scotland: the movie location guide: My name is Joe , The Angel's Share , Restless Natives , accessed January 5, 2016.
