I write having just returned from a three-week road trip around North Wales, Scotland and finishing off in the North East of England. The trip started with a visit to Anglesey - (Visit Anglesey - Done!).
This is me on the Anglesey side of the Menai Suspension Bridge. Built in 1826 by Thomas Telford and so much more impressive than the Britannia Bridge built less than 30 years later by Robert Stephenson. That is this one:
It was damaged by fire in the 1970s and it looks a bit different now to how it looked originally but still it has never been as beautiful as the Thomas Telford bridge.
Anglesey was pretty but a bit dull (sorry to those of you that love it). The highlight of the trip there (aside from the beautiful camp site right on a beach) was a visit to a model village. I've done it now and don't expect I'll return.
Later in the trip we arrived on Syke (Visit Skye - Done!). Skye also has a bridge. It was opened in 1995 (previously access to the isle was by ferry) and therein lies an interesting story.
The tolls charged were particularly unpopular. By 2004 a round trip cost £11.40. Protesters claimed the toll made it the most expensive road in Europe. While the Skye bridge was being built, several other smaller bridges in the Hebrides were also being built or planned. These bridges were to connect smaller islands either to larger ones or to the mainland and were without tolls. Skye believed that the Skye bridge should also be a public road and free of tolls.
The campaign included mass protests and a prolonged non-payment campaign. Numerous toll opponents were cited for refusing to pay the toll, with around 500 being arrested and 130 subsequently convicted of non-payment. Toll collection ceased in December 2004 as the cost of building the bridge had, by that time, been covered.
Skye was very beautiful; the bridge not so:
Like Anglesey, Skye was quiet with little to do but relax and look at the scenery - and sample the local water of course!
