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.
Simon Willis
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For me, this is the Autumn equivalent of Spring cleaning. This seems to be my season for a good clear-out.It happens when I put the cycling shirts and shirts away for another winter and get out the long tights and warm jackets. When I see kit I haven't used for a year or two I think, "will I...
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This is utterly amazing stuff. Nikwax TX.Direct wash in re-waterproofing. I know the internet is full of "unbelievable, brilliant products", but this one really is.Remember how your waterproof jacket shed showers when it was new? The rain 'beaded' on the surface and rolled off....
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It appears the business called "Ironman" is trying to flatter me into entering more of their competitions.Their All World Athlete programme is awarded to competitors who clock up the most points in a year. Or at their letter puts it, "the top 10% of your age group".Except I'm not. Their...
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On the 8th July 2018 Colleen Blair swam into history. You can watch it sixteen minutes into this episode of The Adventure Show on the BBC iPlayer.Others had tried and failed to swim The Minch, from the Isle of Lewis to the Scottish mainland. The 'Little Minch' between Harris and Skye had been swam...
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Visitors on Sanna BeachSome of this year's challenges I've had to go looking for. Others have just found me. September has been one of those months. It started great with a campervan trip to Benbecula, North Uist and South Uist. I spent two days as part of the team filming The Heb...
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Last December when I wrote about my plans to tackle a 'special' challenge each month in my 60th year, I listed swimming The Sound of Harris as a possibility.We came close. We swam IN the Sound of Harris. yeah, OK - not close at all.I was nowhere near swim-fit enough to manage the crossing and...
Craigard Croft
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On Thursday evenings a small group of elderly men meet in the bar of the, " Kilchoan Hotel" for gossip, discussion of the latest outrage from Trump ....the undoing of enlightenment values, rejection of truth, rationality and science; beer and sometimes a meal. We also try to...
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Owlet's first night flightLast week as he was driving home past the barn "Raptor" saw a young owl on the road in his car headlights it was the third owlet to be hatched.Barn owls are usually 12 - 13 weeks old when they leave the nest so this one ( the last of the three) must have been hatched...
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Press & Journal 22nd August 2018While I was away in France a photograph taken by a holiday maker appeared in the Press & Journal of a pine marten and a "wildcat" together. The pine marten appears to be retreating and we ( my neighbours and I) are pretty sure that the photograph was...
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I found a dead, male barn owl this morning, under the beam in the barn where they normally perch and roost. It was so light weight almost as it were only feathers. When I weighed it on my kitchen scales it was a mere 216g a healthy adult male should weigh 360g.All white breast without any spots of...
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House sparrows There has been a steady decline in the population of UK house sparrows during the last 100 years, probably since the motorcar replaced horses on our streets. Changes in farming practice have had an effect too, particularly the lack of winter stubble after a swing to autumn sown...
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Fifty years ago I read a short account of a two person expedition into a remote and then inaccessible region of the Pyrenees, " the Enchanted Mountains" by Robin Fedden", then " The Pyrenees" by Hillaire Belloc and " Backpacking and Camping in the Pyrenees" my imagination was captured.When I...
Otter Adventures
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In this second part of the blog about the Cumbrae Sea Kayak Symposium, I’ll look at the event as a whole and why you should attend a symposium. No matter what level you are at as a paddler there should always be something to learn. In part one of this blog I talked mostly about […] The...
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Last weekend I headed off to a sea kayak symposium for a chance to try sea kayak sailing and having one less than three hours drive from home was too good to miss… As well as being a small island west of Glasgow, Cumbrae is also the home to the Sport Scotland National Watersports Centre. [...
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As the summer season tails off, it is time to rest the arms and exercise the leg. Time to head back into the mountains and explore ready for next year. This is when I hope to be offering more guided family mountain walking adventures. Stunning location for a family mountain walking experience For...
Sunart Community Company
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Annual General Meeting Tuesday October 23rd, at 7.00pm in the Village Hall is the time and date for our Annual General Meeting. This is a time to review all the assets and activities which the Company has looked after over the last year. It is a good event for newcomers and others not yet familiar...
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Although Local Development Officer Angela Williams has left the company, her grand finale was to help secure £41,000 from the Scottish Land Fund to help with our attempt to purchase and run the former Visitor Information Centre in Strontian. Sunart is the only group in Lochaber to receive a Land...
Ardtornish Estate and Gardens, Self catering holidays Scotland
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Scotland has a rich and varied Halloween tradition. Over the years, traditional pagan rituals have largely been forgotten or adapted by the Christian church, into what we are familiar with today. But as this most mysterious of days approaches, there is no better time to have a closer...
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A good old classic loved by everyone. Ingredients 500g Ardtornish beef mince 1 diced Ardtornish onion 2 peeled and chopped carrots 1/2 tablespoon of flour 1 cup of beef stock 4 potatoes 100g milk 50g unsalted butter Salt and pepper 1 teaspoon of...
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What’s the one thing better than relaxing over a dinner of the finest fresh produce Scotland has to offer? It is of course tucking in to your feast knowing that you foraged everything you are eating yourself. Fresh and free, are the bywords of the recent renaissance in foraging and...
