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.
Scottish Islands Explorer
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The MS Magellan sets sail from Dundee on Saturday 14 June 2019 for a cruise to Norway and then around several Scottish islands. It's to commemorate the heritage of the newspaper publishers, D C Thomson, (including The Press and Journal and The Courier) with their shipping company established in the...
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"Look out, behind you!" could be applied to these three on Foula, the distant Shetland isle. They may not be aware that in 1582, when Scotland adopted the new Gregorian calendar with the rest of Britain, Foula retained the Julian version. A report in The Scottish Sun, of a year ago, explains what...
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When a photograph of the lighthouse at Lossiemouth, taken by Gillian Brown, looks like an oil painting, then you know the gallery of images in the BBC Your Pictures of Scotland makes excellent viewing. There is, however, a complete absence of island scenes. Maybe the 21 - 28 December selection will...
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Here's the place to wake on a Boxing Day morning. There will have been a party last night at Berneray with convivial company, for the Gatliff Hostels customarily draw an interesting number of individuals over the festive season. See how the organisation operates and resolve to pay a visit in the...
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There's still time to gift … a subscription to Scottish Islands Explorer and its digital edition. The cost is under tenner (£10 sterling) for six issues lasting a whole year. Just click on below and you will be taken to the portal for payment and presentation. Seasonal Greetings!Scottish Islands...
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Here are two photographs of Orkney - above from Orkney.com and below from McKinlay Kidd - that well depict feature aspects of the archipelago. However, for a gallery of images for which you can vote, go to The Essence of Orkney. It's promoted by The Orcadian and a number of sponsors.Scottish...
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Here's a distant shelter - one of the five bothies on Sula Sgeir - some 40 miles north of Port of Ness at the extremity of the Isle of Lewis. The 'gannet skerry' is renowned for the annual cull of its young birds, served as delicacies. Here also are the remains of a small temple, Taigh Bheannaich,...
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The Press and Journal has a report about the theft of a 7' long claymore from the Museum on the Isle of Canna. It's a mystery.Scottish Islands Explorer - has relatively little crime to reportDigital Edition: formed of inconsequential material, but good content!
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From March 2019, Loganair and Stobart Aviation Services will join forces, in a five-year contract, at Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports. Aircraft will be provided by the former to destinations, including the Scottish islands; ground-handling will be undertaken by the latter.Scottish Islands Explorer...
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Gairsay, Orkney, is just under one square mile in size and rises to a conical 335' with both a triangulation point and a cairn. Some collectors of these features will be drawn, whereas others may be attracted by the production of 'Cinderella stamps'.Its population plunged from 71 in 1841 to zero...
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There is something compelling about the sea-cliffs of Foula as well as about those individuals who get pleasure out of climbing them. Take a high-resolution YouTube view of two such men, one of whom said he was frightened by … fulmars.Scottish Islands Explorer - takes the stress out of some...
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The Shed at Tokavaig, Skye, has been listed by The Modern House as one of the outstanding designs built in 2018. Do take a look around.Scottish Islands Explorer - intrigued by architectureDigital Edition: not easily contained
wondering wanderers
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It’s that strange lull time between Christmas and New Year when some people are already back to work but others are still off, TV and radio scheduling is not back to normal and you hit a point where despite the house being filled with all sorts of delicious special food you struggle to pull...
Volunteer on Eigg
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A very Happy Christmas and all the very best for the New Year! A huge thanks to all those that helped out in 2018 and look forward to another successful volunteer season meeting new faces and hopefully seeing some familiar ones too… See you in 2019!!
Hunter Mountaineering Courses and Guiding
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Dec ’06 to Jan ’07. Ice Climbing in Rjukan, with Matt & Rich Back in 2006, I was working in South Wales, and we usually always had to drove a long way to find ice to climb – this time a small group of us planned a trip to Rjukan for the new year. It was a little pre-season,...
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19th to the 22nd December 2006. My solo open canoe trip along the Caledonian Canal – Fort William to Inverness. Back in 2006, I was working at Kilvrough O.E.C. on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. At the beginning of the Christmas holiday I had the idea of doing a quick visit to Scotland, to...
Marc Calhoun
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Another island that I've yet to see is Texa. It is a small island that sits a half mile off the south coast of Islay, just opposite the Laphroig distillery. It had a population of 8 in the 18th century, and has been uninhabited since the middle of the 19th.Texa is an intriguing name. Especially in...
Simon Willis
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The Bonza Bike Box is the best I've used. You can probably find a nice discount code too.But there might be an issue regarding rust on its catches which I'll explain in a moment.It's not the lightest way to transport a bike. If you have a 23kg allowance, you'll not squeeze in much extra...
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I can't call this a 'challenge' since it wasn't up to me whether I completed it. But winning it is great.I'm delighted one of my photos from our July Challenge made it into SwimTrek's top five photos of the year.We swam the Corryvreckan - you can read all about it on this blog here, and learn...
Highland Titles
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Occasionally we get asked the question: “What can you do with a square foot of land?” That question is the inspiration behind this article on Square Foot Gardening. Here you will discover exactly what square foot gardening entails. We will explore this method of gardening, look into the...
