Dougarie Estate: Dougarie snowbound

Dougarie under snow

The west side of the Island is under snow and like the rest of Arran and Kintyre has now power. Also there are no phone lines and the water ran very low, until we managed to get a generator attached to the pump. The snow ploughs didn't reach us until late on Sunday and we were very isolated.

The Boathouse

The national news has done a good job in making everyone aware of what's going on, and the problems on the mainland,,,, however, news trickles in slowly here as we have no means of accessing the information.

Digging out road and sub stations

We can clearly see our own power lines are down and the telephone lines are strewn across the road, encased in ice, the telegraph poles are snapped like matchsticks.

The tractor cleared the drive, watch out for snow falls off the roof!

Fortunately as we have a tractor we were able to clear the drive, so at least when the snow plough arrived we could get onto the road - not that we could really go anywhere, but the Kinloch Hotel was the designated refuge point.

Snow on the beach, snowmen not sand castles!

But there really is too much to do, the electric board need access with very wide diggers onto the hills and that means either taking down walls / fences or trying to find a route round. Sounds easy, but when everything is covered in 6 - 10 foot of snow, finding a gate way can be a little challenging.

Now, where did that golf ball go?

Needless to say, everyone is frozen and managing as best they can. Convoys of emergency electric board personal are hives of activity, and helicopters keep buzzing by. I even heard they brought supplies in by boat to Lochranza.