The Epic of Calum’s Road: How One Stubborn Scotsman Built a Road With a Shovel and Petty Determination

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, dear listeners to the Strange History podcast, where

0:03 Speaker 1: we wander through the world's weirdest, most determined, and occasionally

0:08 Speaker 1: questionably executed, human achievements. So you don't have to I'm

0:13 Speaker 1: your host.

0:13 Speaker 2: Amy.

0:14 Speaker 1: A few years ago I did what every person who

0:17 Speaker 1: has never murdered anyone in their life does. I spit

0:20 Speaker 1: in a tube and sent it to a questionable lab

0:23 Speaker 1: that may or may not be in the news lately,

0:25 Speaker 1: and found out I am a variety of things Scottish, Finnish, Austrian, Norwegian, Swiss,

0:33 Speaker 1: Swedish and a few other very northern European things. I

0:37 Speaker 1: then decided let's make a podcast series out of it,

0:40 Speaker 1: and today we're heading to the gorgeous wind swept isle

0:44 Speaker 1: of Rassi in Scotland. Yes, apparently I have a great

0:47 Speaker 1: grandparent from Scotland. Today is about a man who built

0:51 Speaker 1: a road by hand, simply because everyone else just didn't

0:54 Speaker 1: feel like it. That man was Callum MacLeod, postman, lighthouse keeper,

0:59 Speaker 1: amateur engineer, and apparently the human equivalent of fine, I'll

1:04 Speaker 1: do it myself. This, my friends, is the true, unbelievable

1:09 Speaker 1: story of Callum's Road.

1:12 Speaker 2: The problem no one wanted to fix.

1:15 Speaker 1: The northern end of Rasse, especially the tiny village of

1:19 Speaker 1: Arnish was roughly one point seventy five miles from the

1:22 Speaker 1: nearest proper road. But distance wasn't the issue. The issue

1:26 Speaker 1: was a landscape made of rock, more rock, some moss,

1:31 Speaker 1: slightly larger, more aggressive rock. Supplies had to be carried

1:35 Speaker 1: in by hand, by boat, or on your back, like

1:38 Speaker 1: you were re enacting an episode of eighteenth century CrossFit.

1:42 Speaker 1: For decades, locals begged for a road. They wrote letters,

1:46 Speaker 1: they asked nicely, they asked not nicely. They petitioned, they pleaded,

1:52 Speaker 1: and the council said something along the lines of, hmm,

1:56 Speaker 1: a road up there that looks difficult. We're going to

2:02 Speaker 1: have to put that request in the drawer. Spoiler. The

2:06 Speaker 1: drawer was the trash can. Meanwhile, families were leaving Arnish

2:10 Speaker 1: because the isolation made it impossible to get goods jobs.

2:14 Speaker 1: Or you know a Sandwich callum who lived there his

2:18 Speaker 1: whole life, watched his community fade away. Eventually it was

2:22 Speaker 1: just him, his wife Lexi, and a few others. He

2:26 Speaker 1: didn't want to watch Arnish become a ghost town.

2:29 Speaker 3: Today's episode is sponsored by Thistle and Gravel Scotland's leading

2:34 Speaker 3: DIY road building kit. Tired of waiting for local officials

2:39 Speaker 3: to do literally anything, pick up a thistle and gravel kit.

2:44 Speaker 3: It comes with a shovel, a wheelbarrow, questionable optimism, and

2:48 Speaker 3: a paperback copy of So you've decided to build a

2:51 Speaker 3: road alone thistle and gravel. If they won't fix it,

2:56 Speaker 3: you might as well.

2:57 Speaker 2: The man, the myth, the absolute unit.

3:02 Speaker 1: Callum MacLeod was born in nineteen eleven and worked as

3:06 Speaker 1: the local postman, a crofter, a lighthouse keeper at nearby Rona,

3:10 Speaker 1: and a general beacon of stubborn Scottish energy. His daughter

3:14 Speaker 1: later said he believed that if something needed doing, you

3:18 Speaker 1: did it. Most people interpret that as wash the dishes.

3:22 Speaker 1: Callum interpreted it as single handedly carve a road into

3:26 Speaker 1: a mountain. Before building the road, Callum wrote every government

3:31 Speaker 1: agency possible. Some letters were answered, some vanished, Some were

3:37 Speaker 1: probably used as coasters. One reply actually said we'll consider

3:42 Speaker 1: the matter when the population increases. This was especially insulting

3:47 Speaker 1: because the population was decreasing because there was no road.

3:50 Speaker 1: A perfect bureaucratic circle. Finally, after about ten years of

3:55 Speaker 1: being ghosted by Edinburgh, Callum said, write to Hell with it,

3:59 Speaker 1: I'll do it myself, and he meant it.

4:03 Speaker 2: The road building years nineteen sixty four to nineteen seventy four.

4:08 Speaker 1: Armed with nothing but a manual stone breaker, a shovel,

4:12 Speaker 1: a wheelbarrow, some basic engineering books, and the kind of

4:16 Speaker 1: patients usually reserved for saints and kindergarten teachers, Callum began working.

4:21 Speaker 1: His wife thought he was joking. When he told Lexi

4:25 Speaker 1: his wife, she reportedly said something close to I sure, Callum,

4:30 Speaker 1: And after that, why not build us a bridge to

4:32 Speaker 1: sky while you're at it. Then he walked outside and

4:35 Speaker 1: started actually building a road. Lexi had married a man

4:38 Speaker 1: of alarming follow through. He practiced first on a different

4:43 Speaker 1: road before beginning the main project. Callum volunteered to repair

4:48 Speaker 1: a nearby footpath so he could learn how to build

4:50 Speaker 1: a road. It's like wanting to try baking and starting

4:53 Speaker 1: by constructing an entire gingerbread mansion. Government inspectors visited and

4:58 Speaker 1: were impressed and confused. Part Way through construction, a roads

5:04 Speaker 1: inspector visited and saw Callum handbuilding a proper road with

5:07 Speaker 1: drainage gradients and engineering features with no machinery. He allegedly said,

5:14 Speaker 1: it's built to standard. The only odd thing is who

5:18 Speaker 1: built it, He told his bosses. His bosses did nothing.

5:23 Speaker 1: Daily life on the road crew of one Callum would

5:27 Speaker 1: walk from Arnish to the work site, break rocks into gravel,

5:31 Speaker 1: haul them with the wheelbarrow, lay down foundation stones, drain

5:35 Speaker 1: marshy areas, build retaining walls by hand, then do his

5:40 Speaker 1: postal route. Then sometimes go to the lighthouse on Rona

5:43 Speaker 1: for shifts. This wasn't a hobby. This was a decade

5:47 Speaker 1: long side quest.

5:49 Speaker 3: This episode is also brought to you by Highland Bureaucracy

5:52 Speaker 3: Simulator three thousand, a thrilling real time strategy game where

5:57 Speaker 3: you move files from one pile to another. Hold meetings

6:01 Speaker 3: that accomplish nothing, ignore road requests for forty years. Now

6:05 Speaker 3: with passive aggressive memo mode, Highland Bureaucracy three thousand, feel

6:10 Speaker 3: the red tape, taste, the stagnation.

6:13 Speaker 2: Completion, and the great irony.

6:17 Speaker 1: After ten years of manual labor, Callum finally completed the

6:21 Speaker 1: one point seven to five mile road in nineteen seventy four.

6:25 Speaker 1: The villagers celebrated, Callum celebrated, even the sheep celebrated they

6:30 Speaker 1: could finally commute without risking an ACL tear. And then

6:35 Speaker 1: the government showed up, the same council that said it's

6:39 Speaker 1: too expensive, it's too steep, it's too difficult. We'll get

6:45 Speaker 1: to it later, sent in heavy machinery and pave the

6:49 Speaker 1: entire thing. On one hand, yay improvement. On the other,

6:54 Speaker 1: you had ten years, guys. Callum didn't complain. He told

6:59 Speaker 1: a reporter, I built the road for the community. I

7:02 Speaker 1: did not build it for praise. Translation, I have no

7:06 Speaker 1: interest in your nonsense. Kindly move along.

7:11 Speaker 2: After math and true legends the engineer's report.

7:16 Speaker 1: Years later, an official roads engineer reviewed Callum's work. He

7:20 Speaker 1: concluded that the manually built portions were of exceptionally high

7:25 Speaker 1: quality and entirely suitable for vehicle use. In other words,

7:29 Speaker 1: Callum with a shovel equals government with machines.

7:33 Speaker 2: The road saved a community.

7:36 Speaker 1: Once the road opened, more people could travel north, properties

7:39 Speaker 1: were restored, visitors came. Arnish didn't become a ghost town.

7:45 Speaker 1: It stabilized, and the road became its lifeline.

7:49 Speaker 2: The book and fame. When the book.

7:52 Speaker 1: Callum's Road by Roger Hutchinson was published in two thousand

7:55 Speaker 1: and six, Callum became a folk icon. Locals already knew

7:59 Speaker 1: he was extraordinary, but now the world did too. Tourists

8:04 Speaker 1: come from everywhere to drive the road, many slowing down

8:07 Speaker 1: as if listening for the sound of a wheelbarrow somewhere

8:10 Speaker 1: in the wind.

8:11 Speaker 3: And now a word from our sponsor. Scottish stubbornness, now

8:16 Speaker 3: in spray form. Just one sprints and you'll suddenly feel

8:19 Speaker 3: motivated to put together that ikea furniture, finally start your novel,

8:24 Speaker 3: or build a two mile road through solid rock. Scottish stubbornness.

8:29 Speaker 3: Apply responsibly or chaotically your choice.

8:33 Speaker 1: And that, dear listeners, is the story of Callum's Road,

8:37 Speaker 1: a tale of one man's commitment to community, persistence, and

8:42 Speaker 1: absolute refusal to accept no from any government office. May

8:46 Speaker 1: we all channel a fraction of Callum McLeod's energy the

8:50 Speaker 1: next time we hit a bureaucratic wall, or just need

8:53 Speaker 1: to assemble a grill without crying. I'm Amy and this

8:56 Speaker 1: has been the Strange History Podcast. If you like today's episode,

9:01 Speaker 1: hit subscribe, leave a review, and consider building a small

9:05 Speaker 1: infrastructure project in your spare time. It might be easier

9:09 Speaker 1: than dealing with your local zoning office. Until next time,

9:13 Speaker 1: stay curious, stay stubborn, and stay Strange.