Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, March 24 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, March 22. Order within 2 hrs 29 mins

Only 6 left in stock - order soon.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

[{"displayPrice":"$14.95","priceAmount":14.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Nl4mejiLAk%2BOhyz6xIUkdVcTwbsExIWkV5Gil09apWlTn6dJKVUprLlz0O30xyFtHeEFie0ED84%2FqKyHH6E9fBaO5EkZLS0WlGqTnK5z9qlZo3hAKsjm4iLM4XRbZmGozVmcvBjTDgU%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$12.23","priceAmount":12.23,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"23","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"LOwm21NajHDbT4FwKn4Br18LjuWxhWEFNz0%2Fdj%2BQd58yos5cxWDpj5XM03VC%2FaM37TH0Ib9AI%2BIektwglMPqUaQtkIbXBqt2yY5CzUlVb3Z9S2JCxlrexoAQ8PNYaDMlouz9BuJMFdnzDq%2Bhr0oWqND4dfihLqfFAFDlQcHk7dVC%2Bs1SIxyNvYZhKYNhFw64","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$14.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, March 24 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, March 23. Order within 3 hrs 59 mins

Used: Good | Details

Sold by VMG Books & Media

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$8.71
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Blackwell's U.K. *dispatched from UK*

Added

Not added

$13.58
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Added

Not added

$11.21
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Book Bunker USA

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Roger Hutchinson

Calum's Road Paperback – July 27, 2008

by Roger Hutchinson (Author)

161 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$1.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$24.86

$24.81

$21.77

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.95

$8.71

$2.25

Enhance your purchase

An incredible testament to one man’s determination' – The Sunday Herald

Calum MacLeod had lived on the northern point of Raasay since his birth in 1911. He tended the Rona lighthouse at the very tip of his little archipelago, until semi-automation in 1967 reduced his responsibilities. 'So what he decided to do', says his last neighbour, Donald MacLeod, 'was to build a road out of Arnish in his months off. With a road he hoped new generations of people would return to Arnish and all the north end of Raasay'.

And so, at the age of 56, Calum MacLeod, the last man left in northern Raasay, set about single-handedly constructing the 'impossible' road. It would become a romantic, quixotic venture, a kind of sculpture; an obsessive work of art so perfect in every gradient, culvert and supporting wall that its creation occupied almost twenty years of his life. In Calum's Road Roger Hutchinson recounts the extraordinary story of this remarkable man's devotion to his visionary project.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Birlinn
Publication date

July 27, 2008
Dimensions

5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1841586773
ISBN-13

978-1841586779
See all details

Frequently bought together

Peter May
4,291
Paperback
54 offers from $3.49

Editorial Reviews

Review

An incredible testament to one man’s determination'
The Sunday Herald

MacLeod defied powers outwith his control in the only way he could . . . paints a compelling picture of the man'
Sunday Times

This is an extraordinarily fine book, and one of the most important books to have come out of the Highlands and Islands in recent years'
West Highland Free Press

wonderful, elegant and serious'
The Telegraph

About the Author

Roger Hutchinson is an award-winning author and journalist. After working as an editor in London, in 1977 he joined the West Highland Free Press in Skye. Since then he has published thirteen books, including Polly: the True Story Behind Whisky Galore. He is still attached to the WHFP as editorialist and columnist, and has written for BBC Radio, The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Herald and The Literary Review. His book The Soap Man (Birlinn 2003) was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year (2004). Calum's Road has been a huge bestseller, shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize (2007) with film rights sold.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Birlinn (July 27, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1841586773
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841586779
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.7 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #85 in Highway & Traffic Engineering
- #211 in Transportation Engineering (Books)
- #816 in Scotland History

Customer Reviews:
161 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Roger Hutchinson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star		71%
4 star		16%
3 star		8%
2 star		4%
1 star		1%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Suzanne Karl-Brigman

this was great.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book provides a really well thought out history of Rassay and the events leading up to Calum's decision to build a road. It also included many interesting statements from people directly relevant to the event. As a lover of any book about Scottish history, this was great.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jeremiah S. Jacques

A gem!

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

A powerful gem of a book about an extraordinary man named Calum MacLeod. I produced a podcast episode about the amazing story, which you can hear here: [...]

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Elf

Amazing Account of Events

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2012

Verified Purchase

The events that lead up to the building of Calum's road are amazing, and reflect the oppression of the common crofter. Hutchinson does a lovely job delivering the reality of the crofter's plight, and explaining how Calum became the last inhabitant of Arnish.

Helpful

Caroline W,Gibson

Great book about one mans ability to accomplish a seeming impossible labor singlehanded.

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

The book is a great read about a man of many valuable talents and unbelievable tenancity and courage.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

Nice story that particularly interested me, because I stayed at the Spindrift B & B on Applecross Peninsula and and a wonderful view of the island wheee Calum built his road.

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2016

Verified Purchase

great history in site

Helpful

Steven R. Shook

Interesting Story of Clearance and Determination

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2019

I found "Calum's Road" to be a very enjoyable book. The story of the building of the roadbed begins with a history of Raasay, which is an island located between the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland. A history of Calum's family also is provided throughout the story line.

One aspect of the story that I found interesting relates to scale. The road that Malcolm "Calum" MacLeod built was less than two miles in length - much shorter than I had perceived it to be given the little I knew about the road prior to reading the book. I live in Idaho (USA), which is about three times larger in land area than the Scotland. The driveway from my home to the county road is a mile long. Many forest roads are built that are far longer than Calum's road. Hence, I didn't find the length of the road that Calum built all that remarkable.

What I did find remarkable is that Calum used manual labor to construct the road. Bulldozers, graders, and dynamite would have resulted in the construction of Calum's road is less than a month - even in the 1960s and 1970s. However, given the book's description and videos of the road available online, the beauty of a Calum's "handmade" road likely far surpasses any road constructed by machine. I would love to go Raasay and see the road myself in a future visit to Scotland.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Erica

Fairly Predictable

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2021

Currently, I'm reading the entire "Outlander" series by D. Gabaldon. Having finished the 7th novel, I wanted to read something with fewer pages yet, keeping the highlander theme in focus. So, I picked this up. It's fairly formulaic with nothing to keep me coming back. Yes, I finished it, because I don't like to leave books unfinished and it wasn't a thousand pages. But my life would not have suffered if I'd left it unread.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Popeye

It's a history book not a story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

From all the descriptions I read, I expected this to be Calum's story of why and how he constructed the road singlehandedly, with descriptions of his crofting life on Raasay. Instead it's a dry, depressing, factual history of just about everything but Calum and his road. A great disappointment.

2 people found this helpful

M. Shuttleworth

Inspiring, a true gentleman.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

Sheer determination and grit, charm and warmth, set in a cold place. This is a simple story written in an easy manner, there's hardship, graft, frustrations with authorities, setbacks and triumphs. There's not so much detail of the actual construction but a concentration and emphasis on decline and the changes that transformed the Island in the name of modernisation. This is one mans Herculean task, not to change a nation, but simply to save a life, his own. A task to preserve a place and a way of life and not just to preserve but perhaps to see his beloved land flourish once more. With his single minded determination Calum MacLeod demonstrates the strength of a nation, his road won't stop progress but it might allow those wishing to, the ability to return to North Raasay. I can't think of a similar recent feat performed by one man purely for the love of his home and lost community. Inspiriring

2 people found this helpful

Richard Genner

More than just the story of one man and a road, and it needs to be

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

A well researched and written book, of particular interest (obviously) to anyone who has visited the north end of Raasay. It is, as other reviewers have written, 75% about Raasay's history during the 19th & 20th centuries, and 25% about Calum and his life and his road. But to write solely about Calum and his road would produce a very thin book! One accolade reproduced in the opening pages describes the book as 'surely a minor masterpiece' - I think this is pushing it a bit far, the book probably has too narrow an interest base to be any sort of masterpiece but it certainly has been well researched and is very readable; this book adds admirably to the accounts of Raasay crofting life as previously documented by John Nicholson and others.

One person found this helpful

Busyquine

Brilliant narrative - of a postie on Raasay who decided ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

Another real life portrayal of a real person, from Roger. Brilliant narrative - of a postie on Raasay who decided after generations had been denied a road on the island, to literally take matters into his own hands - with no road building experience, he acquired a book about the matter, and set about the task in hand, using and physically moving raw materials himself, over a period of years. An amazing guy, written about by an equally skilled and motivated author. Thoroughly recommend the book - I have read it a while back but have acquired copies for friends. Roger writes about many other real people and real events - no fictional fairy story guff here - try The Soap Man, Polly, The Silent Weaver, Walking to America, and a recent one on St Kilda - The People`s History, from him - all brilliantly researched and well written.

3 people found this helpful

Frodefox

A great story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

The book tells a story about a guy who built a road (by hand) to his little village when the authorities didn't do it for them. Easy read, great story about perseverance and stubbornness. Also nice stories about the surrounding people, his family and friends.

See all reviews