The heat is on (not)

We got to Coigach and set up housekeeping in the autumn - a time of beauty and a time of impending cold. Heating in Castlehill was a whole new bag for us - accustomed as we were to central heating and thermostat control. There was no source of heat in the kitchen so we knew we would need to get a calor-gas heater. The nice thing about that was that heat was instantaneous as soon as it was turned on.

The other rooms had fireplaces as the sole source of heat. Some crofters in the village still cut peats for fuel but we burned a soft Polish coal (it was cheaper and more reliable to get the coal from Poland than to be subject to the strikes etc. that plagued the Scottish coal supply). It took a long time to warm the room, the walls being stone and 2 feet thick with no insulation. Warm sweaters (jumpers) were a must and Jack almost always wore a wool cap in the house. I usually sat on the hearth in the evening while we read or played music. Sometimes the best warmth came from a certain cat (large and solid and comfy) who lived next door but had adopted us early on.

In the bedroom we had a wee electric heater which we turned on about 1/2 hour before we went to bed - along with an electric underblanket to warm the bed and chase away the damp. When the electricity went out - an all too common occurance - we wore all our clothes to bed. And lay still to warm a spot to conserve heat.

The bathroom had neither heat nor electricity. The water heater had to be turned on in the kitchen for each use and had to be turned off again when no longer needed. If we ran the hot water at full bore it made the bathroom tolerable for long enough to wash - but there were no long soaking baths when the wind was up. Bathroom duties on winter mornings were accomplished at amazing speed.


Not what we were used to - but oddly enough we didn't mind!