DURING the past few years the main road from Arrochar to Inveraray and beyond, the A83 – known as the ‘Rest and be Thankful’ – has become newsworthy on account of periodic landslips which occur after heavy rainfall, not surprisingly, as above it are the ‘Arrochar Alps’ .
This road was built in the 1930s for motor traffic, to supersede the ‘military road built in the 1750s under the supervision of Major Caulfield, in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745- 46. That road is called into play when the 1930s road is blocked. It is the steep final section of the military road to the summit at the head of Glen Croe that gives the name ‘Rest and be Thankful’ to a road designed for marching infantrymen.