Crovie
Crovie
(pronounced Crivie) is unique; there is nowhere else in mainland
Britain where it is simply impossible to use a car. Visitors
are strongly encouraged not to drive down to the village itself
as the shelf of land on which the village is balanced is so
narrow that it only has room for a row of cottages and the
footpath in front of them.
Residents have
to leave their cars at the south end of the village and walk
often transporting groceries in wheelbarrows.
Crovie was established
by families which had been removed off estates further inland
to make room for their landlords sheep! The landlord decided
he wanted them to operate his fishing boats; the fisherman
saw little of the profits and took daily risks fishing in
all weather. By the mid nineteenth century some fishermen
had built their own boats, and by the end of the century some
fifty such owner-operated boats sailed from Crovie.
The
end of Crovie's fishing industry came, finally and abruptly,
on 31 January 1953.
A storm that had been building since the previous night brought
hurricane force winds and huge seas to the village. The path
to Gardenstown was washed away
(it has since been replaced), together with stretches of Crovie's
sea defences and a number of houses and sheds. The village
ceased to be viable almost immediately, and many residents
simply moved round the bay to Gardenstown.
Crovie was left
largely to be developed as holiday lets, and today it is a
much more active place in the summer than at other times of
the year. The restrictions placed by its location on development
throughout its history, plus the halt to commercial activity
in 1953, have left Crovie as one of the best preserved fishing
villages in Europe.
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