Tag: The River Shiel

Arisaig 2026 2: The Big Day

My second post in the series about my holiday in Arisaig, dealing with my birthday itself.

Welcome to post two in my series about this year’s holiday. My birthday this year (the same number birthday that Bilbo Baggins missed due to other events on the day of his arrival by barrel at the shore of the Long Lake) fell on a Sunday. The birthday meal was booked for Mingary Castle (there is also a Mingarry that has a good restaurant, but we were going to Mingary, we where we had eaten last year) at 1PM. Therefore we set off at 11AM.

THE OUTWARD JOURNEY

To get from Arisaig to Mingary Castle we had to go east, south and then west rather further than we had started, since this castle is quite near the western end of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. Along the way we crossed the river Shiel by a stone bridge that I remembered with crystal clarity from an earlier Scottish sojourn. We then had a long run west along the northern shore of Loch Sunart, passing Salen (a place I first saw way back in 1993), Glenborrodale, site of a nature reserve, the Ardnamurchan distillery, and sundry viewpoints. The turn off for Mingary Castle is just east of (i.e before) Kilchoan, and we arrived there in good time, but not ridiculously early.

THE MEAL

It did not take long to identify two courses I wished to eat (a pork terrine starter and slow cooked beef with Yorkshire pudding, carrot, broccoli and triple cooked potatoes) and a suitable beverage to accompany them (Dark Mile, brewed by the local Glenspean brewery). The food was excellent, and the surroundings pleasant (I was one of at least three people that day who had come for a birthday meal). After I had finished I did some walking around outside the castle and got some photographs.

THE JOURNEY HOME

We went home by the same route we had come, which enabled me to get pictures of places I had missed on the way out (I sat in the same seat, the non-driver’s side rear seat, for both journeys, so was facing opposite sides of the road each way). Thus as you will see from the gallery the outbound journey was light on pictures from Loch Moidart, which was on the wrong side of me that way, and heavy on pictures from Loch Sunart, while the homeward journey was the reverse.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The crossing of the river Shiel on the outbound journey – only the third picture I took because I was on the wrong side for most of the good early scenery.
Mingary Castle
These woolly creatures are not the local sheep – I reckon they are alpacas, and as such a long way from their native Andes.
Here as well as the possible alpacas there are two ordinary sheep for comparison purposes.
The images from the drive back start here.
The Bridge of the River Shiel – compare how many pictures there are still to come with how few there were before the first picture of this crossing.
A couple of pictures of parts of the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
Beasdale is such a minor station that is actually a ‘request stop’ – if you intend to alight there you must notify the conductor.

Scotland 2022: Acharacle

Welcome to the next post in my series about my Scottish holiday. This post focusses on Acharacle where we were staying, and the surrounding area. It covers Wednesday evening and Thursday of the week in question.

Birthday Meal

The evening of Wednesday June 1st featured a belated birthday meal at an excellent restaurant. I opted for smoked venison for a starter and steak for the main course, washed down by a rather good local beer.

THURSDAY: TWO LOCAL WALKS

Thursday had been forecast to be the least good day of the week weatherwise, and it was (although for western Scotland it was far from being bad). During the two periods when the weather was good enough to go out we did first a walk to the village shop, visiting the church on the way back, and then in the late afternoon/ early evening a walk over the Shiel bridge and then part way along one side of the loch that the river turns into in that direction (the Shiel is a very short river). There is a small settlement called Moss, and indeed mosses and lichens grow very luxuriantly in this part of the world.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs taken in and around Acharacle…

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday.
Our abode for the week

Scotland 2022: The River Shiel and Tioram Castle

An account of a riverside walk centred on a 13th century ruined castle.

Those who read my first post in this series will not be surprised that following the events of Saturday we were all too knackered to do anything active on Sunday. Thus this post deals with Monday’s activity, a (mainly) riverside walk with Tioram Castle as its centre piece.

The River Shiel

For the first part of our walk we followed the road, but fortunately we were then able to divert on to a well made track following the river bank. The river Shiel is stunningly scenic, and as you will be seeing it has some quite interesting currents and whirlpools. Tioram Castle, a 13th century ruin that one cannot actually enter is located where the Shiel flows into Loch Shiel, a sea loch (for reference, what the Scots call a sea loch the Norwegians call a fjord). Here are some photos from the outward journey…

CASTLE TIORAM

The castle is approached across a causeway, and then along a path that is tricky in places. Here are some pictures to end this post…