Some Scorraig Books


These are the cover photos of my three books. They are more or less autobiographical. I must admit here that our escape from Scorraig was a failure and we came back to Scorraig a good bit before  the year 2000.

You can buy these Books for £5 each plus packing and postage. They can be bought in "The Ceilidh Place Bookshop" in Ullapool or "The Ullapool Bookshop" for £6 each.


"It All My Fault"

Covers my life up to about 30 when we came to Scorraig.

"Escape To Scorraig"

Describes the life we led on the Croft from
1963 to 1986.

"Escape from Scorraig"

Continues the tale with life up until we came
back in 1996 and a few stories which I have come accross since.








"A Spot of Scorraig History"

    Describes the houses and who was, or had, lived in them when I came to Scorraig in 1963. There are pictures of some of the houses and of other bits and pieces. There are some of my memories of what the old people told me. including  all I have gleaned about the German bomber pilot who landed  up in Scorraig after trying to drop bombs on the ships in Loch Ewe and baling out over Scorraig.

How to "Make a Spinning Wheel"

 I  made for a woman who wanted me to make her a spinning wheel but I told her I was too old and staggery and so wrote the book instead. Sometimes I wonder if she ever built one, probably not, althrough the book contains all the details needed.
After all, I have made 26 of them over the years. One was brought back to me by a woman in Skye for its 30 year check up about 3 or 4 years ago.

                          There is another book to be had about the old days in Scorraig which can be got in Ullapool it is by Nina Mackenzie who was a generation older than I.

I believe they have copies in The Ullapool Museum. 

There are books and useful information about building a windmill to be found in scoraigwind.com You will  also be able to find quite a bit of good advice for people interested in small green energy in general.

The lovely thing about the web is that you can always switch it off, but most people don't and just dive deeper. If you want to see more pictures of Alun's past you can click HERE


And to finish here is a scrap which never found its way into any of mine or anybody else' books. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud,

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host of beautiful windmills,

Beside a loch above the trees

Whirling and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in everlasting line

From Achnasheen to near Inchbae,

Ten beauties saw I at a glance

With whirling blades in graceful dance.

 

O why do whingeing hikers shout

And gnash their teeth and stamp their feet,

When e’re they see the windmills rise

Their narrow arms to summer skies,

There would no nuclear fall out be

Nor Co2 or rising sea.

 

For oft when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon my inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude,

And then my heart with pleasure fills

                                             With thoughts of many more windmills.                                            

                         by Alan G Bush 2006
With Help from Kath, (like Dorothy)


 Wordsworth would have written this

but he was 102 years too soon.