I grew up on a farm near the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands, near the Alton Towers entertainment park in fact. Access to the farm was via a narrow lane with high hedges and in some places the lane was far below the level of the surrounding fields. In one place I would guess that the total height of the sides of the lane plus hedge was around fifteen feet. Visibility was atrocious and if you met a car there was absolutely nowhere to go and a head-on collision was likely. So you just had to go very slowly in places, be very alert and be ready to jump on the brakes and stand on them. Knowing where there was the odd gateway, which would allow passing, was essential. Strangers however would have no clue where such gateways were and there were no other passing places. I soon discovered a lot of ‘drivers’ simply cannot reverse and their embarrassment has to be covered up at all costs. I always reversed, never doing the silly standoff thing, because at least I could reverse, fairly swiftly too, and knew where I was reversing to, which was invariably a long long way.
In contrast at least here in the Highlands visibility is often excellent, and the high banks thing is not so prevalent. On the high moorland road into Heasta where I am, you can in most places get off the road in an emergency. There is one atrocious blind bend on a rise with a drop off on the one side and a bank on the other, so head on collision it is. A young doctor went straight on at this bend and ended up marooned right off the road, with his car’s belly rocking on a mound of peat. I towed him off with our landrover.
So for me, driving on the single track roads up here is a pleasure whereas in England, lanes that are not on high moorland can just be a pain and dangerous. I was very much accustomed to driving on shocking rural roads in England all the time, as well as driving in central London traffic, so was well prepared for the more pleasant roads of Skye.