Cold war dreams

The craft village at Balnakeil, just west of Durness village, is a cold war white (baby) elephant, built to house part of a nuclear early warning system, but never commissioned. The buildings were turned over to become a "craft village", which still exists, even if the population has turned over. In a way, it's a nice example of swords to ploughshares. It's also a reminder that things don't stay the same. The cold war, and fear of nuclear apocalypse, were part of the backdrop to my youth. The period of respite between perestroika (and aftershocks) and the series of failures from the early 2000s onwards was brief - a high water mark we didn't recognise, with a Britpop soundtrack. Maybe the devil does have the best tunes ...