Category: Scotland
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Loch an Eilein
The “Lake of the Island”. And on the island a castle. A castle that was unsuccessfully stormed by Jacobite troops in 1690. Long after that battle, ospreys nested there. King George V came, soon after his coronation in 1911, especially to view them. Apparently the loch was dammed to create artificial floods to float logs…
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St Helen’s Church, Aldcambus
On the road again. Heading north of the border, and stopped for a break. Spotted “St Helen’s Church (rems of)” in Gothic font on the map so an excuse for a run along the north Berwickshire coast. The church is considered to be early 12th-century. Dedicated to St. Helen, who was the mother of the…
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Fast Castle
This is a part of the country I just didn’t know existed. We’re usually dashing past on the A1. But it’s a fascinating coastline, rugged, unfrequented with few paths. Fast Castle looked interesting, perched on an inaccessible promontory called Castle Knowe. It was built in the 14th-century, destroyed and rebuilt in the 16th but in…
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Bass Rock
I must confess, I have never set foot on the island. But it looked so white in the October sunshine and clear air I couldn’t resist a photo. The whiteness comes from the thousands of gannets and other sea birds that live on this gigantic lump of basalt. Look closely and you can make out…
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Cove
Painful memories. Eleven months ago I had a slight tumble off the sea wall opposite. In the centre of the photo, there is a blue notice board with an orange life ring that I must have fallen past, although I didn’t have time to read the warnings about the dangers of falling off. No permanent…
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Creag Meagaidh from Coire Ardair
Coire Ardair is a classic glacial corrie, the Lochan a’Choire surrounded by a back wall of steep precipitous crags. The name of the high point, the Munro Creag Meagaidh, means in Gaelic, the crag of the boggy place, referring I guess to the boggy summit plateau. Early 20th-century climbers referred to the mountain as Craig…
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Sunset over Eigg and Rùm
A fitting finale to this year’s Scottish trip. Tomorrow we begin the journey south. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Airsaig Canal
Surely the last thing you would expect to find in the Western Highlands would be a canal, the Crinan and the Caledonian excepted of course. But there’s another one in Arisaig. It was built to enable timber to be floated down from a sawmill at Loch nan Eala to the sea. The lade, to give…
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Port Achadh an Aonaich
About a mile south of the distributed settlement of Smirisary near Glenuig. Along a very rugged but well-defined path. Port Achadh an Aonaich is at the path’s end and known locally as “White Sands”. Smirisary is a fascinating place. Most of the old cottages have been renovated and made into holiday homes but with no…
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Camas an Lighe
Still on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Camas an Lighe is more commonly known as the Singing Sands although I am not sure if that is a literal translation. But they didn’t sing for us. We had expected a coral beach that does ‘sing’ indeed when you walk on it. Carraig Fhada on Islay is a good…