Rest And Be Thankful

[pwa]

Interesting article about a Scottish road infamous for landslides.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53922077

[Mick F]

Very interesting. Thanks.

Point of order though, the landslips have never been at The Rest, but on the way up, maybe half a mile before The Rest.

Rest and be Thankful is a pass at the top of the glen, immediately before the road drops down towards Loch Fyne.

[Syd]

Very interesting. Thanks.

Point of order though, the landslips have never been at The Rest, but on the way up, maybe half a mile before The Rest.

Rest and be Thankful is a pass at the top of the glen, immediately before the road drops down towards Loch Fyne.

To be fare the story does state, near the start, that the landslides occur near The Rest..........

[Mick F]

To be fair ........ their headline is wrong.
The Rest and Be Thankful: An infamous road through 'a mountain in torment' .............. though they do explain "near" in the text.

Headline should read A83 from Arrochar up Glen Croe through a mountain in torment.

The Rest and Be Thankful: An infamous road .......... is just plain wrong, but it is an eye-grabber, so I see why they said it. It doesn't make it right though.

[cycleruk]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[Mick F]

Exactly!


Talking of stories ............
I had a posting to Clyde Submarine Base back in the early 1980s and worked on the cryptographic equipment in the comms centre.
I was a technician specialising in all things comms, radars, and computers ......... and this posting was different but well within my specialisation.

We worked very closely with the BT engineers as our equipment was transmitted down land-lines to all parts of the country including Whitehall. BT maintained the secure lines, and we maintained the crypto end.

The BT engineer in the building also went out on fault calls. Many was the time he was called out to Rest and be Thankful to fix the (vandalised) telephone box. It was a double box so you could get two people in there with rucksacks etc as there were ......... still are? ........... many walkers and trekkers up there. Would be used for shelter from the weather, or for phoning in an emergency.

These days, we all? have mobile phones, so the double box has been removed.
It was precisely here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.22639 ... 312!8i6656

Why ANYONE wanted to go right up to the Rest and vandalise a telephone box was beyond us all!

[LittleGreyCat]

<snip>

Why ANYONE wanted to go right up to the Rest and vandalise a telephone box was beyond us all!

Possibly by the time you get up there there is nothing else to do?

[irc]

duplicate

[irc]

Looking at the picture on the BBC article I think the upper modern road is in the wrong place given the landslip hazard. As can be seen in the picture/video the angle of slope is less lower down at the old road.

While the higher line may have had advantages in allowing an easy gradient near the top of the pass with today's higher powered vehicles a slightly steeper road would be acceptable. A new road built below the old military road until near the top of the glen and use of modern machinary to build a combination of embankment and cuttings to get over the top of the pass.

[Mick F]

^^^^
Agree.
Driven over many times, and cycled it too once or twice.

Another story .........
Back when we lived in Helensburgh and Balloch, the RAC Rally came through the west of Scotland, and the old military road up to the Rest was part of the route.
We drove up to the Rest and watched some of the rally cars come out at the top whilst watching them wind up the bends .................... then drove down near the bottom to go up to the starting line and entered into the military road.

Within a few minutes, we had to pull over to let the rally cars through.
Fascinating stuff.

[Rich_Clements]

I cycled up the old road last summer mainly as there was traffic lights on the new road and didn't fancy trying to get through before the lights changed. The old road is very quiet but you do have to carry the bike over a couple of gates and is vert steep up to the car park at the end and yes I was thankful it was over.

[ambodach]

Calling the whole road the Rest and be Thankful is not exactly new. I lived in Helensburgh in the late 1940's and early 1950's and cycled there often and it was commonly called that as a sort of shorthand even tho' we knew that the term referred really to the top of the climb.

[Mick F]

Calling the whole road the Rest and be Thankful is not exactly new. I lived in Helensburgh in the late 1940's and early 1950's and cycled there often and it was commonly called that as a sort of shorthand even tho' we knew that the term referred really to the top of the climb.

Good info.
You pre-dated us by thirty years!

Daughter1 was at primary school at John Logie Baird, but that wasn't until Sept 1982.

[pwa]

It is quite common to refer to a climb by the name of the pass at the top. Not far from here is a pass called Bwlch Y Clawdd, which you might say is the name only of the summit, but everyone and his dog uses that name to mean the three roads approaching it. And because people use the name that way, that is what the name has come to mean. People "do the Bwlch".