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.
Lochaber High School
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The pupils in our support base did not follow their usual timetable last week but instead participated in a Multidisciplinary learning project entitled, ‘People who help us in our community.’ The week began with a visit from the local Dietitian and continued with visits to...
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41 potential S6 volunteer lifesavers gave up their time and cheek cells last Friday to become potential stem cell donors for the Anthony Nolan Bone Trust. The average take-up in Scottish schools is 25% - LHS S6s topped that with a whopping 48%!For two years now LHS has established links with Laura...
Scottish Islands Explorer
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This replica of an early Irish currach indicates the fragility of the voyages of those monks who sailed away from Ireland into the unknown. One arrived at what became Papa (the priest's island), in the south-west of the Shetland archipelago. It had pools of fresh water, enough land for cultivation...
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The Lealt Falls and Gorge, Skye, attract many visitors. An ambitious piece of civil engineering has started to provide a viewing platform and additional car-parking. See The Press and Journal.Scottish Islands Explorer - new views with very issueDigital Edition: an ambitious way in which to secure...
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The Bay at Oban (photo from VisitScotland) is a marine gateway to Mull, the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Now Crianlarich, the rail junction for Oban, is a train gateway for CalMac services. A dedicated section on the Caledonian Sleeper to and from London Euston will link with the coaches of...
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Sanday, in the Small Isles, has a low population, a few houses, a school, a restored church and a bridge to Canna. The infrastructure is minimal. However, its main track and has now become its first and only road. Survey through the BBC website. Scottish Islands Explorer - distribution depends on a...
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It's a misty Orkney day and a gantry barge is lowering what appears to be a capsule into the water. Go to the BBC and see what's on its way down and then take in more details directly from Microsoft. Keeping the kit cool is no problem; avoiding damp in the datacentre is another thing.Scottish...
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Of all the areas of the UK, the one with the highest incidence of surface water is North Uist. Yet there are three villages - Lochportain, Cheesebay and Hobeg - on a peninsula to the north-east of the island, looking forward to receiving their water-supply from a public mains operated by Scottish...
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Plans to re-open scheduled services to and from Ashaig Airfield, Broadford, Skye, are being considered. The popularity of the island has increased as a destination for travellers in recent years. The details are in The Press and Journal. So here's an airfield that could be upgraded to an airport....
Abacus Mountain Guides
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On the longest day of the year we woke to see fresh snow on the summit of Ben Nevis and down to about 1200m. Anyone up on top early to see the sunrise might have had quite a chilly time. High pressure is building out to the west so we have NW winds blowing on to Scotland. This means cold and...
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Seven weeks ago I spent a day with the new Trainee Volunteer Rangers at Nevis Landscape Partnership when Glen Nevis was still brown. The silver birch leaves were only just opening up to the longer days but the grass was still brown with barely any new life after a cold winter. Today was...
West Coast Mountain Guides
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For Neil’s second day out with me, we decided to head to Ardgour, and to Indian Slab, deep in Glen Gour. Whilst the approach isn’t short, it’s relatively flat, that is until the final 500m or so. The crag is an amazing sweeping slab of gneiss, and although there were one or two...
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I woke up this morning to a heavy shower, so wasn’t quite sure how the day was going to pan out, but the rain soon eased, and by the time I met Neil, the roads were almost dry. By the time we got to Polldubh in Glen Nevis, the crags, particularly the slabbier faces, were completely dry. We...
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Dan and I enjoyed a great day on Ben Nevis today. Dan had a train to catch at 5:30pm this afternoon, so we had an early-ish start and made our way up along the Allt a’Mhuilinn up the the north face of Ben Nevis, with Tower Ridge in our sights. Despite the drizzle and greasy conditions...
Treshnish Farm
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The rain held off until we had come back from a walk through the fields. I was accompanied this time by L, another botanist, doing plant surveys for the New Flora. The Treshnish tetrad has been surveyed already but she came back to say hello and have a look at what was around. I...
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Back to the Moonwort! A pair of fledging Ravens hanging about like unruly teenagers on the rocks in the hill park. Allowing us to get much closer than their parents would, before flying off. Inquisitive I would say!
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A day of travel and very little wild - except for the landscapes I drove through at times and the views from the car.Misty west coast gave way to grey east coast, with lush green fields and leaf laden green hedgerow trees with waist high curls of Cow parsley exuberantly dancing along the roadsides...
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In the Black Park again. We aren't walking the dogs in the Haunn field at the moment because of the Corncrake. Brownie.As midsummer approaches the sun set creeps up towards the Cairns of Coll. This time next week it will have started going back towards Tiree!
wondering wanderers
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June brings Fathers Day and two specific anniversaries each year. One is solely mine – the anniversary of passing my driving test, which I did on 12th June 1991. I posted some memories of passing my test and the feeling of independence and adventure it gave me on facebook this week and it...
Marc Calhoun
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I am just back home from an amazing three weeks in the Hebrides. Ten of those days were spent aboard the good ship Hjalmar Bjorge, during which we visited a dozen islands. A summary trip report will appear shortly on the Northern Lights website. Then, over the coming weeks, I will post more...