Wild Lochaber Blogs
The latest bleats from the sheep on the street...
Blogs (web logs) and blogspots provide a unique insight into Highland life and nature in Lochaber and The West Highlands.
We have put together a collection of Lochaber blogs to highlight the traditions, culture and wildlife in the various regions, including the West Coast Islands.
We show entries from the last 100 days, organised by region, topic and blog. The titles and text snippets 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.
wondering wanderers
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As in we are having days of needing suncream and midge spray closely followed by days of needing coats and even having the fire lit of an evening. Rum is forever consistent in her inconsistency! On the sunny days – of which there have thankfully been a fair few we have been outside making the...
A Kilchoan Diary
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5.07am - dawn across Kilchoan Bay with a light northerly moving mist across the summits of Beinn nan Losgann and Ben Hiant.5.26am - the sun's first rays touch the summit of Ben Hiant. The trig point is clearly visible.5.42am - sunrise on the shoulder of Glas Bheinn.11.26am - a perfect morning....
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There are still some places left on this course - email Claire Pepper at claire.pepper.whc@uhi.ac.uk or just turn up on the night.
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Ritchie Dinnes writes, "This image is of the sun going down behind Muck. The summit of Hyskeir can just be seen to the left of the sun."Many thanks to Ritchie for a superb picture.
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The days of haymaking by hand are long gone - this picture, courtesy Dorothy Parker, was taken at Achateny Farm.Today the whole job is mechanised. The field is cut and then, after a couple of days in which to dry, the crop is lifted and baled by one machine before........being transferred to...
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We're at the height of the cruising season now, with some very elegant ships passing, many of which we've seen before. However, some are new to us, like the Aegean Odyssey, pictured working her way through a small flotilla of yachts. A converted ferry carrying some 380 passengers, she is 'Voyages...
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A pine marten came to breakfast........at Richard O'Connor's house at Achosnich.Cute as these animals are, we used to discourage such visits - not actively, but in the sense that we didn't put food out for them - because we had heard stories of pine martens tangling with cats, confrontations from...
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We walked this morning on Ardnamurchan Estate land, across fields which were once worked by the people of Choiremhuilinn clachan whose houses, foreground, now lie ruined a mile to the east of Mingary Castle, having been cleared of their inhabitants in 1828.It would be good to think that the...
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The MV Corran has been repaired so a full service is now available again at Corran.Many thanks to Gus MacLennan for the information.
Scottish Islands Explorer
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The MV Filla, on its regular service to the Out Skerries jetty on Bruray, will not pass Bound Skerry, the most easterly point of Britain, but it will afford a good view of Easter Skerries (below) and, perhaps, a glimpse of Mio Ness, the 'narrow headland' (bottom) at the south-west end of...
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The island of Ulva is well within the boundaries of Mull, but public access is currently by the passenger ferry above. It is not a large craft for the 4,600 acres that have been owned by the Howard family for over a century. Their £4.25 million sale of the island, recently announced, has been...
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Thanks to Andy Strangeway, advocate and adventurer, we have an image of Bound Skerry, the most easterly point of the British Isles. The lighthouse, built in 1857, in the Out Skerries group of Shetland also had its means of construction and of delivering supplies - a railway. Apparently it was...
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When it comes to remote railways in Britain, the one on Sule Skerry, 40 miles west of Orkney, comes into the extreme category. It is on the South Landing and was used for conveying rocks during the 1892 - 94 construction of the 88ft lighthouse on the 35-acre islet that rises 45ft above sea level....
The Adventures of Algy
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adventuresofalgy: Algy reclined on a sunny rock beneath his cliff-side nest and listened to the sounds of the sea, seething and swirling all around him. He could think of no better way to spend a bright summer’s afternoon, and he hoped that the tide would not rise too soon… Algy sends you all lots...
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Algy reclined on a sunny rock beneath his cliff-side nest and listened to the sounds of the sea, seething and swirling all around him. He could think of no better way to spend a bright summer’s afternoon, and he hoped that the tide would not rise too soon…Algy sends you all lots of fluffy seaside...
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adventuresofalgy: It was summer holiday time in the wild West Highlands of Scotland, and while his assistants continued to work, Algy had been enjoying that most fashionable of all types of holiday - a “staycation”… Of course, it is well known that those who take their holidays on the west coast of...
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It was summer holiday time in the wild West Highlands of Scotland, and while his assistants continued to work, Algy had been enjoying that most fashionable of all types of holiday - a “staycation”…Of course, it is well known that those who take their holidays on the west coast of Scotland must...
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
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If anybody out there can help with these large sawfly larvae, I would be very grateful: Initially on Oenanthe crocata (Hemlock Water-dropwort), then on adjacent Juncus acutiflorus (Sharp-flowered Rush).
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Last night’s moth trap had some fine specimens: Light Emerald Coxcomb Prominent and quite a few more.
Craigard Croft
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This week I was interviewed by Carole Doyle a researcher from the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.James Hutton Institute find out more Carole was interviewing Crofters as part of a large EU / UN project assessing the role of small farms in food production and sustainability in...