Ardnamurchan Area Blogs
Blogs (web logs) provide an ideal opportunity to explore the traditions, culture and wildlife of Wild Lochaber. We have put together a collection of local blogs and provide the titles and text snippets to give a taste of each entry with direct links to the main blog entry on the host website. We hope you will find time to explore the full articles and further information on the host blog sites.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions for blogs you would like to see here.
Craigard Croft
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On Friday my Charolais cross bred ewes will be sold at Torlundy mart near Fort William. They are going for two reasons one economic and one personal.This year it cost approximately £50 to breed and rear a lamb for sale. It then cost £2 to take each animal to the mart and the auctioneer charged...
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This is our first attempt at a full length ( 1 minute) wildlife film with a musical backing.A condensed version of a day in the life of Peanut the one eyed pine marten in the Campbell's roof space. She comes home at about 6.30 am, squeezes between the roof tiles and the rain gutter to get in...
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In Britain we exterminated our large predators long before other Europeans. The wolverine is estimated to have gone 8,000 years ago, bears 1000 years ago and lynx in 400 AD. The last wolf is reputed to have been shot in Scotland in 1680.European brown bearIn continental Europe large predators...
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A couple of weeks ago I had a phone call from a friend in Northumberland, he'd just seen a pine marten at the side of the road as he was driving home. That happens all the time here in Ardnamurchan but Bob lives in England in the Coquet valley about fifteen miles south of the border. Pine martens...
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Pine martens are still an endangered and protected species in the UK. Here in Kilchoan they are more common than domesticated cats. Most residents have experienced living with a pine marten. You may be sitting reading one evening then you hear something like a body being dragged across your ceiling...
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I've been complaining daily about the wet summer. But there is a plus side, heavy rain encourages the growth of chanterelle mushrooms.Yesterday I was shown, by someone who knows about these things..... where to find them.Within about five minutes I had filled a large brown paper bag with perhaps...
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It's pretty obvious why they are called barn owls, they nest and roost in barns, first documented by Ray 1678 (The ornithology of Francis Willugby). Pennant 1768 ( Pennant, T, 1768, British Zoology ii.) calls it the, "white owl" but barn owl is the common usage and barn owl was officially adopted...
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When I read a book from end to end without a break that's a good indication that I enjoyed it and want to share it. If it's my book I give it to someone who will appreciate it, but this one was a library book. It's philosophy and adventure for the dedicated outdoors person,Lake BaikalThe subtitle...
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Giant Sequoia 33 groves of the world's largest trees under threat in CaliforniaTomorrow (25th August) the review of National Monuments by the US Secretary of the Interior will decide which if any National Monuments are "too big" (over 100,000 acres).I just tried to insert a link here to the...
Ardtornish Estate and Gardens, Self catering holidays Scotland
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.fusion-fullwidth-1 { padding-left: px !important; padding-right: px !important; }CEO UPDATESummer is well underway and Ardtornish has been very busy with visitors in a packed booking schedule for the visitor team...
A Kilchoan Diary
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It seems appropriate to start the last post of the Kilchoan Diary with the picture that appeared on the very first post, on 15th October 2009. It showed the Loch Linnhe approaching Mingary Pier at ten to eight in the morning, with an explosive sunrise behind it. The picture was responsible for the...
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There was a time when rabbits were much more common here. When we first had the Ferry Stores we used to watch them in the evenings playing on the grass by Shore Cottage but I understand that, years ago, they were much more abundant - Sanna has been described as over-run with them. It may be that...
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We came to West Ardnamurchan in 1996 to run the shop. We didn't know much about retailing, and keeping the shelves well-stocked was always a challenge, but the support from the community as a whole, and the staff in particular, made the experience a pleasure. We never felt we 'owned' the shop, more...
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One of the things I have learnt in the last few years is that photographs often don't come out the way one expects them to. With such limited knowledge of digital photography, I simply point the camera, press the button, and then hope that the settings were right - and occasionally, very...
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The buzzard may be the most common of the local raptors but it doesn't make this bird any less impressive. It's only when one sees one up close - usually perched on a post and approached in a car - that one realises how large they are.They have a hard life. There isn't a bird, large or small, that...
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Sunrise, just before half past six this morning, promised well for the day so we set off for a walk early........noting, as we passed along the edge of Kilchoan Bay, that some of the Kilchoan sheep had managed to get themselves marooned by the rising tide, something which happens not infrequently....
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Comar's 'Face' tour is at Kilchoan Community Centre on Saturday 16th September - more details here.We're still trying to clear our house. The following are available, prices negotiable:Apple iMac, several years old but in very good condition, running Snow Leopard. Free to a good home.Office Chairs...
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The Raptor's superb picture graphically describes the winds that batter Ardnamurchan Point and scour the peninsula. One day, during a particularly vicious storm, we stood outside our house at the Ferry Stores and watched a near-hurricane strip slates off the roof and send them bowling down the road...
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Thank you, thank you so very, very much, to everyone for yesterday afternoon's party in the Community Centre which gave us an opportunity to say our goodbyes. Particular thanks to those who organised it, who cooked for and cleared up after it, who spoke so very kindly of us, who chauffeured us...
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This post isn't 'news' at all but a small 'thank you' to the small birds who have been our constant companions through the years we've lived on Ardnamurchan. They're not much different from small birds elsewhere which we've encouraged with ridiculous amounts of food but........we've never ceased to...