Month: May 2022
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Oratory at St Columba’s Church, Kilneuair
A fairly spontaneous decision to explore the ‘Muir of Leckan‘, the hills between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne. Hidden in a bluebell-carpeted copse of trees is the old Church of St Columba at Kilneuair. Separate to the church is a square oratory, a private chapel, probably 18th century, although it is described as a ‘folly’. The…
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Kilmartin Glen
Overblown with pre-historic monuments — stone circles, cists, cairns, standing stones. So many to chose from, Chille Mhartainn has them in abundance. This is Nether Largie Standing Stones, five tall standing stones arranged in an X-shape, with an outlier 100 metres to the north and the stump of another one 300 metres to the west.…
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Paps of Jura
Farewell to Islay. And farewell to Jura although I didn’t manage a visit this year. But the sight of the Paps of Jura reminded me of adventures past. Of the Bens of Jura Fell Races. Of persuading my dad to drive his clapped out Morris Oxford Estate to make the long journey — he hadn’t…
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Kilslevan deserted village
The remains of deserted houses and settlements are common throughout the whole of Scotland, Islay is no exception. Kilslevan seems to have once been a township of at least eight longhouses, and several other buildings, enclosures and two corn-drying kilns although these are hard to discern under the grass and moss. There are the ruins…
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Eilean Nòstaig
The windswept rolling headland of Ardnave Point is a mix of machair and sand dunes and populated by inquistive sheep. Along the Atlantic facing coast, a strange abandoned arrangement of concrete dam walls and rusty sluice gates, too small for a boat. I read that it is an abandoned lobster farm. Further information has proved…
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Dùn Bheolain
I find walking along the western seaboard of Scotland extremely exhilerating. More so that bagging summits in the clag. This is from Rubha Lamanais or Smaull point, just north of Saligo on Islay. It offer superb views of a trio of sharks teeth peaks, sometimes called Smaull Rocks or sometimes Opera Rocks. The latter must…
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Caolas nan Gall
Portnahaven and Port Wemyss are two fishing villages on the south-western tip of the island of Islay. They are protected from the Atlantic rollers by the islands of Orsay and Eilean an Mhic Coinnich. We arrived on a falling tide, with waves breaking in the Caolas nan Gall, the narrows which separates the islands, and…
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Sound of Islay
A breezy crossing over to Islay. The hypnotic movement of the wake. The Sound of Islay is the 20 mile long narrows between the islands of Jura and Islay. With its 5 knot tides it has a notorious reputation, the graveyard of many shipwrecks, particularly around Glas Eilean, that small skerry in the left distance…
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Port na Cùile
Or where are all the Basking sharks? A report in The Scotsman on the 18th May 1939 tells of “a great migration of basking sharks into the Firth of Clyde [having taken] place in the past few days“. Large schools of sharks had been “seen passing into the Firth through the Sound of Sanda, at…
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Saddell Castle
Saddell Castle was built in the early sixteenth century for the Bishop of Argyll. In one of the pillars of its gate are indentations which Kintyre tradition claims are the finger-and thumbprints of the Devil. The story goes that the Laird of Saddell mischievously wagered a village tailor to spend a night in the graveyard…