50th birthday holiday

50th Birthday Holiday 14: The Birthday Meal

Continuing my account of my holiday in far western Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday with an account of the birthday meal.

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday. Following on from the post about the morning and afternoon of the day itself (Saturday 31 May) we now deal with the evening, when we having the birthday meal.

MINGARY CASTLE

The birthday meal was booked for the Mingary Castle restaurant, and it seemed logical to arrive a bit early and have time to look at the castle and its grounds. In appearance Mingary Castle looks much as Tioram Castle, at the extreme east of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, would had it not been allowed to fall into ruins (check this post from three years ago for more about Tioram). There are some splendid sea views from the grounds (while the castle does have windows they are effectively functionless). There is also an interesting little display near the car parking area including sculptures of two frogs and a bench on which three monkey sculptures sit side by side, one seeing no evil, one hearing no evil and one speaking no evil. Inside the castle is quite impressive as well.

THE MEAL ITSELF

There were some things that would be served anyway, and we had to choose two course out of three from a set menu. Since the starter was entirely tomato based we went for the main course and the dessert. When it came to drinks they had beer available – I chose a local product called Dark Mile, which proved to be excellent. The meal was magnificently cooked, especially the lamb for the main course, which was done in three different ways.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the evening…

50th Birthday Holiday 13: Portuairk Walk

Continuing my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday with the first of two posts about the day itself.

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday. We have arrived at the day itself, the last full day of the holiday.

THE BIRTHDAY MORNING

Saturday May 31st started with heavy rainfall. I had brought my sister’s present to me with me so I would have something to open on the day, and my mother had brought a card from an aunt. This card is splendid, and now has its place in my collection of railwayana. The present from my sister was an incomplete scorecard from the legendary 1926 test match at The Oval, where England secured their first Ashes series win since before WWI. From the parts of the scorecard that were pre-filled in and the additions by its original owner I deduce that whoever it was attended days two and three in person but was not there for Australia’s final collapse on day four, though they definitely knew about it since at the bottom of the scorecard there is in big red characters (probably by way of a marker pen) the result: England won by 289 runs. There is a detailed account of this match written pretty much contemporaneously since England chairman of selectors at the time Pelham Warner wrote a book about the 1926 Ashes, “The Fight For The Ashes 1926”, a copy of which is in my cricket library.

PORTUAIRK

In the afternoon the weather cleared up, and we walked to Portuairk and did some exploration of the seaside there. This helped us work up an appetite for the birthday meal, which will be the subject of the next post in the series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

To view pictures at full size click on them/ If you open the first picture in the gallery you can view all of them, including an option to do so as a slide show. Here are the photographs that relate to this post…

50th Birthday Holiday 10: Glenborrodale Nature Reserve

Continuing my account of my 50th birthday holiday with an account of the walk around Glenborrodale nature reserve.

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday (I was away from 25th May to 1st June inclusive). We are now starting to deal with Friday May 30th which was a fairly busy day.

WHEN WEST IS EAST

Glenborrodale is itself pretty far west, and the nature reserve is west of the village. Thus most people approaching the nature reserve do from the east, to the point that the directions in our booklet of walks for getting there assumed as a default that everyone would be approaching from the east. However, we were actually approaching from the west, which meant that the instructions for getting there had to be mentally flipped – we had to realize that we were going to see the nature reserve before we saw the village it is named after. Here is a map plus some supplementary detail:

This map, extracted from the information board at Strontian, shows the whole Ardnamurchan Peninsula. We were staying more or less at the point where the road to the lighthouse diverges from the road to Portuairk, right at the western end of the peninsula, while Glenborrodale is in the south-eastern corner of the peninsula. This was actually the furthest east we travelled on any of our excursions during the week.

THE WALK

The walk is circular, ending with a stretch along the road to get back to the car park. The nature reserve part of the walk starts with a long ascent, then a brief flat patch where one walks on boardwalks (these boardwalks are superb, and made the walk much more enjoyable than it might have been). Then there is a long downhill section back to the road. There are information boards at various points along the route about what you can see. This nature reserve is under the aegis of the RSPB and they have a section about this walk on their website. I did not manage to spot a Violet Beetle, but I did get one green bodied dragon fly and three common/ highland darters in the course of the walk. I thoroughly recommend this walk should you be in the area.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is my gallery from this walk….

A brightly colour butterfly resting on a dandelion.

50th Birthday Holiday 9: Achosnich and Portuairk

A look at the areas closest to where we were staying. Most of the pictures come from two walks to and from Portuairk, but some were taken through the car window, and some just outside out converted caravan.

This is the ninth post in my series about my recent holiday in Scotland. Achosnich, where we were staying can barely said to be a place at all – about five houses clustered immediately above a road junction where the road out from Kilchoan splits into two, one leg going up through Achosnich and on to the small seaside village of Portuairk and the other going to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and the westernmost point of mainland Britain. The photos in this post were mainly taken during two walks on the Thursday, when the weather was too bad to permit major excursions.

A CONVERTED CARAVAN

The main body of the house in which we were staying started life as a caravan. To make a house of it a porch area/ utility room was added to one side of the centre of the building. This, which also houses a washing machine and drying frames, is reasonably spacious, as are the dining and living room areas, though the kitchen is cramped, and no more than one person should be trying to do things there at any one time. The main bedroom has a small amount of space around the bed, and has been painted an unappealing shade of purple. The second bedroom has a not terribly large bed with some space its foot, and a wardrobe and two drawers in one corner (these, and the frame of the wall mounted mirror are painted the same shade of purple is as on show in the master bedroom). There is just about space between the side of the bed and the wall of the bedroom to sideways shuffle along the side of the bed. The shower room has the shower cubicle itself, with a good strong protective curtain, and a tiny anteroom area where one towel can be hung on the rail. The lavatory and bathroom sink are in a similar sized ‘room’, with both being more like cupboards than real rooms.

THE WALK TO PORTUAIRK

The walk to Portuairk features some excellent views, and Portuairk itself is a very scenic village. The road continues at sea level until the start of a footpath the leads to MacNeil Bay. On these occasions I did not spend much time in the environs of Portuairk, though there will be another post later in this series from an occasion when I spent longer there.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures for this post…

50th Birthday Holiday 8: MacNeil Bay

Continuing my series about my Scottish holiday with a post about a walk to MacNeil Bay.

This is my eighth post in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday (a full week – May 25th to June 1st inclusive). It follows on from the visit to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.

THE WALK TO MACNEIL BAY

The path we followed left the road a noticeable way back inland from the lighthouse. MacNeil Bay was the first destination, and had we felt like doing so we could have walked on to Portuairk. In the event, the walk down to the bay and a bit of time spent there was amply sufficient. MacNeil Bay is very beautiful, and we were there in good weather.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from this walk and the bay itself…

50th Birthday 7: Ardnamurchan Lighthouse

An account of our visit to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and its surrounds, with a ohoto gallery.

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Ardnamurchan Lighthouse. This post looks back at that visit. This is a transition point in one way – after spending most of yesterday travelling I am back home in King’s Lynn now.

THE WESTERN TIP OF MAINLAND BRITAIN

The lighthouse, a Stevenson design, is reasonably impressive but hardly distinctive. Behind the lighthouse there are some stunning views, and a small exhibition about some of the sea creatures that can on occasions be seen in this part of the world. There are also a few other bits, including an area where stone was once quarried (if there is one thing other than water that this part of Scotland has in abundance it is stone).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the environs of Ardnamurchan Lighthouse

Me, standing as far west as is possible in mainland Britain.

50th Birthday Holiday 6: Travelling on the Waverley

An account of my voyage aboard the paddle steamer The Waverley, complete with photo gallery.

This is the sixth post in my series about a holiday in the far west of Scotland. Additionally I scheduled a post to appear this morning, on the day itself, as I could not be sure how many (if any) posts I would be able to put up during the holiday itself. My previous post in the series was about the paddle steamer The Waverley, and now I follow up with one about our voyage aboard that ship.

ABOARD THE WAVERLEY

We boarded the Waverley at Tobermory and 2:15PM on Tuesday May 27th, and were aboard for approximately three hours. In that time the ship should have travelled around the Isle of Muck and back to Tobermory. However, the sea was rather rough, and the ship’s captain wisely decided that this plan was not safe under the circumstances. The voyage took in Loch Sunart instead (Loch Sunart is a ‘sea loch’, which is the same thing as a fjord). I spent most of the voyage outside on deck, enjoying the views, though I ventured inside on a few brief occasions – making sure I saw everything of interest inside the ship, and also using the fact that engine was viewable, and that this was the warmest area on board, which meant that it was suitable when a quick warm up was needed. The voyage was great fun, even with the route having to be altered.

PHOTOGRAPHS

These are the pictures I took while on deck during this voyage…

50th Birthday Holiday 3: Ardnamurchan Geology

A special post about the geology of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, prompted by a small but captivating display at the Kilchoan Community Centre.

This post is somewhat out of sequence given that most of the photographs which provide the information were taken yesterday. It is the third post in a series I am doing about a holiday I am currently on in the far west of Scotland (see here and here).

KILCHOAN’S TREASURE TROVE

Yesterday we went to visit a craft market in Kilchoan, a very small town that serves as a ferry terminal as well. The community centre boasts a very mini museum – two maps, one an elaborate wall mounted one and the other a three dimension relief map in a glass case with accompanying key and notes, and some rock samples showing all the types of rock in the area. The market was very worthwhile in and of itself – we got some good food there, including bread of superlative quality, but I would regard the display at the community centre as worth seeing in its own right as well.

A VOLCANIC REMNANT

The above image contains a lot of text, and just to make sure everyone can access that text I reproduce it below:

The Ardnamurchan peninsula provides a splendid example of an intrusive ring-complex and is one of a series of such complexes of Tertiary age found in the west of Scotland. Other examples are at St Kilda, Skye, Rhum, Mull and Arran.

Ring-intrusions are formed when a plug of country rock becomes detached from its surroundings by a ring fracture. Three such intrusive centres are found at Ardnamurchan. Ring-dykes are intrusions along the ring-fracture itself and when repeated subsidence has taken place, as at Ardnamurchan, a sequence of ring-dykes forms about a common centre. In their downward extension ring-dykes usually incline outwards from the intrusion centre. Their width may vary from less than a hundred yards to more than a mile.

Cone sheets are associated with the ring-dykes. They are relatively thin intrusive sheets which occupy concentric fissures inclined towards a central point and are usually arranged concentrically about the igneous centre. They may have been produced at a time when the magma exerted a strong upwards pressure against the roof of the magma chamber.

The model shows clearly how these tertiary ring-structures find expression at the surface in the topography of Ardnamurchan.

The rock samples on display include granite, basalt and xenoliths. Xenoliths (from the Greek, meaning literally ‘alien stone’) are rocks formed particularly deep within the earth, and hence not commonly seen at the surface.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My photographs relating to the above post…

This is the wall mounted map ,memtioned in the post.

50th Birthday Holiday 2 – Actual Arrival

An account of day two, including a walk I took after we were safely ensconced in the house at Achosnich.

Welcome to the second post in my series about my 50th birthday holiday in the far west of Scotland. I started by explaining the snags of day one and consequent rearrangement of plans. This post completes the story of getting here. Yesterday provided material for several more posts – it featured one of two major events planned for the week, the other being the birthday meal on the day itself, Saturday.

LONG AND WINDING ROADS

Though there were a few minor issues with the journey from Callander where we had overnighted on to Achosnich where we are staying for the week there was nothing to compare with the upheavals of day one. There are two land routes to the far west of Scotland, the direct route that involves using the Corran ferry and the longer route by way of Fort William. We had opted for the Corran ferry route, and until 12:20, by when we were very close to our destination there were no problems. It was then that we hit a delay in the form of a temporary road closure. Fortunately, the village of Strontian (where the metallic element Strontium was discovered in 1790 – like the four elements Ytterbium, Yttrium, Terbium and Erbium, all named for Ytterby in Sweden where they were discovered, the element is named for the village) was only a few miles behind us, and it numbers a cafe among its amenities, and since the road was reopening at 1:30 filling in the necessary amount of time was less of a drag than it might have been. Once the road reopened it took us a couple of attempts to locate the property, but we got there in the end.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the day…

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