Month: May 2022
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Mull of Kintyre lighthouse
The road to the Mull of Kintyre is long and tortuous, finishing at a small public car park about 350m above sea level with super views across the North Channel to County Antrim in Northern Island. It’s easy to overlook how short a distance this is; up to the 1840s ferry boats plied the crossing,…
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Carradale Point
A Brobdingnagian finger pointing due south into the Kilbrannon Sound. The headland is protected by a jungle of rhododendron and populated by feral goats. A narrow dyke of igneous microgabbro 23 to 66 million years old runs down the centreline of the isthmus but the dominant rock is much, much older, heavily banded Schist, folded…
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Skipness Castle
A spur of the moment to turn right after leaving the Lochranza to Cloanaig ferry brought us to Skipness Castle. We could tell from the map there was a castle but hadn’t expected this gem. And another one probably built by Dubhghall mac Suibhne ā of the MacSween clan ā who also built Lochranza castle,…
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Stacach, Goatfell
The ridge connecting Goatfell with its subsidary top, North Goatfell. Momentarily cleared in the swirling mists. Goatfell, at 874m, is Arran’s highest peak; North Goatfell is 818m high. The main route up Goatfell is a well-graded trail, and very popular, almost a pilgrimage. The Stacach ridge is a bit more serious. Goatfell has a third…
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Lochranza Castle
Standing on a grassy spit of sand and shingle in the middle of Loch Ranza looking out to sea, the castle is in a pretty ruinious state. The aspect is rather spoilt by ugly industrial fencing intended to keep the unwary out. The original castle was built in the 13th-century by the Lords of Knapdale,…
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Fingal’s Cauldron Seat
Giants do get around a bit. In Yorkshire, Wade performed huge landscaping feats. But Wades attempts were nothing compared to Fionn mac Cumhaill, or Fingal in its anglicized form. He built a causeway bridging Northern Ireland with Scotland only to have it destroyed by a rival giant. He pops on Staffa island where a cave…
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Cock of Arran
The northern tip of the Isle of Arran is called the ‘Cock of Arran‘. Just to the east of the promontory is a sandstone large boulder that is supposed to resemble a cockerel. Or it did until someone knocked its head off. When that happened is lost in history. It was certainly history in 1932…
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Red deer, Loch Ranza
Went for an evening walk along the shore of Loch Ranza on the Isle of Arran, and, on the way back, in the gathering gloom, this remarkably tame fine beast eyed us up but stood his ground. I wonder if he is a descendant of the twenty red deer that were brought onto the island…
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Wanlockhead
An interesting walk around Wanlockhead’s heritage trail. Wanlockhead, Scotland’s highest village, and “God’s Treasure House” although his treasure of the ores of lead, zinc, copper, silver and gold had to be gained by hard dangerous work in extremely tough living conditions. The village of Wanlockhead existed before the Quaker company of the London Mining Company…
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A Method for May
On this day in 1937 the Bradford Observer ran this little piece in the paper’sĀ ‘Yorkshire Gossip’ column:ā A Method for May. Were you up at 4 o’clock this morning, gathering green branches, rehearsing the steps of your morris, ” feateously footing the hobbyhorse,” and washing your face in the dew ? Perhaps you did…