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.

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 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.

Here are the pictures for this post…

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.

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.

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