Nobody knows Caithness better – meet the man behind the Courier's Out and About With Ralph column
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More than 40 years after beginning to pen his regular Caithness Courier column, Ben MacGregor still wants to celebrate the county for its wonderful wildness.
The retired Dounreay worker is the man behind the Out and About With Ralph articles, which have been published in the Courier since 1982.
And he is still motivated to encourage people to appreciate what a beautiful part of the world he lives in.
Mr MacGregor, who is originally from the Midlands near Birmingham – though has lived in Caithness for over 45 years – thinks the Highlands as a whole could better embrace the opportunities that tourism offers, while arguing that there are more than enough turbines in the far north.
He was speaking as part of the Wick Voices project, which collates audio interviews of people across the county on its new website. The service now hosts more than 390 recordings, with more being added regularly.
Mr MacGregor (71) said: “There’s still that attitude that somehow tourism isn’t a proper job. We have absolutely world-class landscapes, scenery, wildlife, and lots of people will pay to come and see it.
“We need to understand that tourism is a proper job, it’s helping lots of people see all sorts of wonderful things they want to see.
“At the moment the attitude to the North Coast 500 seems to be, ‘oh well, we’ll put up with it and all these campervans’. We should be saying this is wonderful, and we should be providing lots of facilities for them and doing everything to encourage people, and being friendly – not having these signs saying no campervans, no parking, no overnight stops etc.
“We should have lots of public toilets, which have been closed all over the place, and get rid of the potholes so that people can enjoy our roads.”
Ralph, as he is known in print, likes to explore all the “nooks and crannies” of Caithness, as well as further afield. He has paddled the county’s coastline many times over, visited Stroma by kayak several times, climbed all the Munros, cycled most of the roads and tracks that appear on the maps and ventured into the inner depths of the local hills and moors.
“You really need to go and look a bit more in Caithness, you need to be able to read a map, and you find all sorts of places that aren’t obvious,” he explains.
“At first sight the county can seem a bit bare and barren but it’s full of nooks and crannies and places to explore when you actually go and explore.”
And he’s keen to get out there, whatever the season, whether cycling 14 miles each way to Dounreay for work before his retirement or crossing pristine snow in the Flow Country on skis.
“I like any way of travelling under my own steam which gets you to out-of-the-way places, and that’s really why I enjoy cross-country skiing,” he says.
“I’m not as fit as I once was – I’ve had trouble with my heart and trouble with my hips, so I can’t do as much now, but I used to get the skis out on the rare occasions we got lots of snow.
“You could ski out across deep soft snow – where it would be an absolute slog if we didn’t have the skis – and get miles and miles from anywhere and have the whole landscape to yourself.
“Somewhere like the Knockfin Heights with all the lochans frozen and deep snow and sunshine – it was a landscape you just wouldn’t have been able to get to without the skis. And it’s a lot remoter than places like the Cairngorms that have funicular railways and ski lifts and things.”
In recent years, Mr MacGregor has benefitted from an e-bike, which he says takes the sting out of the hills and head winds, allowing you to do what you could 30 years earlier. He also says the sea kayak is the perfect place to be on a calm, sunny day.
However, while he enjoys escaping to the depths of the county, he is less keen on the increasing number of wind farms in Caithness, and around the coast.
He says: “The offshore wind farms are better than the onshore ones, and I don’t really see the need for more onshore since they are putting so many offshore. There is far too much reliance on wind now.
“Also, we’re now having to consider putting loads of massive power lines across Scotland, and it’s not for Scotland’s sake. I’m surprised the nationalists don’t make more of this because England is basically dumping its windmills in Scotland!
“They are exploiting the Scottish landscape to produce their electricity. We shouldn’t be allowing this – we’ve got plenty already for Scotland.
“They certainly shouldn’t be putting up any more turbines in the north until the transmission network is adequate to take the power away because at the minute when the wind blows strongly, a lot of the turbines have to switch off.
“That can’t possibly be economic, people are paying through their bills for turbines standing idle. The whole thing is stupid!”
Mr MacGregor is keen to continue writing his Out and About With Ralph column, for as long as he is able to get out and about himself.
“I started writing it because at the time nobody seemed interested in the wild side of Caithness,” he said. “The newspapers were very orientated towards town life and you got a feeling everybody just wished it was like Glasgow, and so I wanted to write about what the area had and which nobody seemed to know about.
“I still kind of have the same motivation. I like to encourage people not necessarily follow in my footsteps but just to appreciate and get out into the wonderful environment around them.”
- Ben MacGregor’s full interview can be heard at www.wickvoices.co.uk
