#loch Dearg

[amylouioc]

A slightly lesser known story about St Patrick is his encounter with Caoránach, a large olliphéist and mother of demons, who was banished to Loch Dearg

This is my March postcard! Click here if you’d like to sign up and receive a print. I make a new Irish mythology/folklore themed print every month.

[kvetch19]

x

[alexisgeorge]

13 mai:

West Highlands J7

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

1. East-Northeast Face of Stob Dear from Kingshouse.

Jake Norton’s photos of the Munros in the Scottish Highlands🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Jake Norton certainly travelled from Colorado 🇺🇸 to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 first to climb and know the energy of the Scottish Highlands, not to meet SH.

2. Glencoe sunset.

3. Three Sisters of Glencoe from Altnafeadh.

4. Climber on the Rannoch Wall.

5. Hills and dales from the summit of Stob Dearg.

6. Looking NNE from Stob Dearg to Ben Nevis (on left) and the high peaks.

7. Autumn color at Loch Achtriochtan.

8. Cottage on the River Coupall below the peaks of Buachaille Etive Mòr.

From Kinlochleven the penultimate stop on the West Highland Way and an important tourism destination in the Highlands.

[alexisgeorge24]

13 mai

Dernier, but not least, jour à Glencoe et je fais une rando dans la partie est avec les sommets Stob Dearg, Stob na Doire, Stob Coire Altruim, Stob na Broige (franchement je me demande pourquoi je m'embête à recopier tous ces noms, j'aurai juste pu dire 4 sommets, personne ne m'aurez jugé). Bon et bien c'était très joli aussi, sans surprise mais on s'en lasse pas de ce pays. J'avais fais du stop pour m'y rendre à cette ballade et j'en fait aussi pour revenir à ma tente. Je remballe tout et direction le Loch Lomond, à 1h de Glasgow, le Fontainebleau de la capitale économique quoi. J'avais prévu d'y rester 2 jours, ça sera un après-midi. Trop de touristes, c'est ambiance VVF ici. Du coup je grimpe une colinne pour m'éloigner du monde et pour poser ma tente. J'aurai au moins une vue magnifique sur le lac et tous ses petits îlots, penard.

Bilan de la journée : 17km 1400md+

14 mai

Mauvais temps prévue pour la mâtinée et j'en profite pour la passer dans les transports direction l'île de Arran en passant par Glasgow. Je plante ma tente dans un camping semi-sauvage: accès eau potable, WC, terrain plat, dans un decors incroyable pour 5£. Je fais une ballade dans la vallée de Glen Rosa qui débouche sur la plage puis la ville de Brodick. Apero sur les bords de mer (on sent la fin du séjour arriver et j'ai plus de mal à éviter les moments detentes/confort/alcool).

15 mai

Rando! Je fais 5 sommets, et ils ont tous un nom. L'un d'eux domine l'île, et je passe par "The Saddle" qui veut dire "selle" car c'est une petite crête qui relie 2 autres crête, donc j'ai une vue sur 2 vallées axialement symétriques et c'est très beau. Je ne croiserai absolument personne sur cette rando jusqu'au dernier et plus haut sommet. Top.

Bilan : 20km 1600md+

Puis je loue un vélo pour le lendemain et je prends l'apero sur les bords de mer.

[scotianostra]

Good Morning from Scotland

Moonset Over Glen Coe (Panorama) by Seán Kerr Photography Via Flickr: At dawn, the full moon is setting against the Belt of Venus just above the Earth's shadow over the Aonach Eagach Ridge at dawn. Taken from Am Bodach. Peaks on the ridge are Sgorr Nam Fiannaidh, Stob Coire Leith, Stob Dubh and Meall Dearg. The foreground peak is The Chancellor and the peak to the left is Bidean nam Bian.

[fisherken]

Ben Cruachan by Iain Harris Via Flickr: The head of Loch Etive with Ben Cruachan / Stob Dearg in the distance.

[jollysportingbear]

The Fisherfield Forest by Kyoshi Masamune Via Flickr: This is the view one can appreciate looking South West from Lord Berkeley's Seat on An Teallach. The area is called Dundonnell and Fisherfield Forest (despite having no trees!) and from this vantage point its main features are Loch na Sealga and the corbett Beinn Dearg Mor together with other hills of Wester Ross.

[on-misty-mountains]

Up and down Sgurr Alasdair

[hagothehills]

𝕊𝕔𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕚𝕤𝕙 𝔽𝕠𝕝𝕜 𝕄𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕔: ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔾𝕖𝕞𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕤

Crystals/gemstones tend to be seen as more of a new age practice rather than a folk magic or witchcraft practice and their use has come under a lot of scrutiny.

I can understand the frustration when they are preached by many as some sort of cure all, as well as the unethical mining practices to supply the market with cheap gemstones.

But I've also heard some say that uses of crystals for magical or healing purposes is a new practice coming from the 20th century new ager movement but that's not the case. There is evidence and lore to show that the spiritual uses of gemstones goes back centuries. Many were used as amulets for protection, often being carved into a specific shape and worn or carried, a lot were for luck and healing also.

Even in Scotland,  there is evidence of this going back hundreds of years. Not only of gemstones but also plain stones.

White pebbles from Loch Ness were dipped in water, the water then was drunk to promote healing. These may have been simply pale coloured stones or possibly gemstones such as quartz.

Certain stones attributed with magical powers were passed down through the family as heirlooms. The Clach-Dearg or Stone of Ardvorlich is a spherical rock crystal passed down in Clan Stewart of Ardvorlich. This stone is the size of an egg and set in four silver loops. It is thought that this was was originally mounted on a wand belonging to an Arch Druid  and another story says it came from the East. The stone was dipped in water which rendered the water to have healing properties and people used to visit the stone to make a wish on it.

Continued ⬇️

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[benvironment]

After a full week of utterly miserable drizzly grey weather in Fife, where any sharpness and clarity has been banished somewhere beyond the murk, it's hard to believe that there might be brightness, colour or clarity in the world. Tomorrow looks like it might be sunny.....but until then, here's a reminder of what nice sunny winter days are like :)

Last Friday I cycled from Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge.....in wonderfully still, cold and frosty conditions....and then ascended Carn Crom and Derry Cairngorm as the sun was rising. I had originally intended to walk out via Loch Etchachan and Glen Derry, but given how impossibly calm, sharp and bright it was, it would have been a crying shame to descend into the shadows prematurely. So instead I carried on around the ridge line to Stob Coire Sputan Dearg, down Sron Riach, and back through Gleann Laoigh Bheag to Derry Lodge.

This was one of those 'inversion' days, where it was fingertip-freezingly cold down in the glens, with a hard frost persisting all days, but freakishly mild on the higher summits. Around 1150m you could feel the change in temperature from subzero to +7C or +8C in the space of ten paces! As though someone had opened an oven door. And yet the ground was still frozen even high up, with a glaze of ice on everything.

It was....frankly....joyous to be back in the glen after that, with everything frozen solid, mist forming above the trees, the sky turning pink, and the moon rising  All that was left after that was a cycle back down to Linn of Dee in the descending darkness, during which I passed a couple of people who were walking IN to the hills, presumably for a similarly beautiful day after sunrise

A memorable day to say the least!

[erikacousland]

The Lagangarbh hut nestles in the valley beneath Buachaille Etive Mòr, Glencoe © Sophia Spurgin Photography/iStock/Getty Images Plus

*

Icon of the Highlands Today on Bing 25 March 2021 At the foot of Buachaille Etive Mòr This desolate scene shows one view of the great Buachaille Etive Mòr, one of Scotland’s most iconic mountains, situated between the valleys of Glen Etive and Glen Coe in the Highlands. A ridge nearly five miles long, it is made up of four main peaks, the highest of which is the pyramid-shaped and much-photographed Stob Dearg, at 3,350ft (1,021m). If you’re wondering about that name, Buachaille Etive Mòr it is derived from the Scottish Gaelic for “the great herdsman of Etive”. Its sister mountain, Buachaille Etive Beag to the west, is known as the small herdsman.

Who lives in that lonely little cottage, the only building in sight here on the north side of the mountain? Actually it’s the Lagangarbh hut, which has been run by the Scottish Mountaineering Club since 1946. It is currently closed but, in normal times, it provides accommodation for passing climbers hoping to tackle that epic backdrop.

This wilderness is situated within the wider Lochaber Geopark, home to some of the UK’s highest mountains, deepest lochs as well as rivers, beaches, coasts and cliffs. This varied terrain is the product of millions of years of mountain building resulting from continental collisions, explosive periods of volcanic activity and carving by glaciers. And it’s not just the dramatic Highlands scenery which marks it out as an area of international importance. It is also home to rare plants, particularly Alpine species, and a wide variety of wildlife from golden eagles to pine martens.

[zrtranscripts]

Season 8, Mission 30: Lady In Red

Last Stand

~

JODY MARSH: This is seriously not good! Sam, is there anything left of the Undaunted?

SAM YAO: Just sinking wreckage. No sign of more lifeboats. The cliff face next to the wreck has completely sheared off. The red fungus underneath is-is pulsing. Mor Island must be bursting with the stuff. Shona, the skincoats and the V-types are converging on the town. A few V-types are sticking by the boulder, guarding it.

MORAG BROWN: Those bloody Reids. That family's become nothing but trouble.

JODY MARSH: Sam, are you seeing this? We're still by East Loch. There's clumps of red fungus sprouting out of the countryside around us.

SAM YAO: It's coming through the soil all over the isle. The fungus is shifting in the earth, like you saw in that cave, Five. Like what made the rockslide on the cliff path. The islanders in town are all barricaded into their homes. That won't protect them long.

PAULA COHEN: Nothing's going to protect any of us long. If we can't move the boulder blocking that geyser, the silver mud won't spread. Nothing will stop the fungus. Frances, any ideas from Dearg?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Uh, we need something to move the boulder. A bomb or a powerful source of traction.

JODY MARSH: Morag. Callum's old drilling equipment, it's still on the island, right?

MORAG BROWN: Aye, Jody. Rusting on a beach. You think we can use it for this?

JODY MARSH: It's our best bet for moving a big rock. We've got to be fast. Once those V-types have hit the town, anyone left who's still resisting the red fungus is as good as gone. Morag, lead us to that beach. Paula, Five, keep your weapons out. Run!

~

MORAG BROWN: There's the equipment, just up the beach. A few rusty diggers and a tractor with a whacking great drill in the front.

SAM YAO: Guys, Shona and the other eight skincoats, they're ignoring the townspeople. She's giving a speech. I've got audio.

SHONA REID: The red god wakes. We are its shepherds! And we rise with it!

[crowd cheers]

SAM YAO: The skincoats are around Shona in a ring. They're drinking something. Oh, don't tell me... it was accelerant. Lots of it. There's, there's wreaths of fungus ripping out of them and coming from the ground under them, exploding from the cracks in the pavement. Shona's clapping.

MORAG BROWN: She's lost her mind. How-how do we get this big tractor thing started?

JODY MARSH: No idea. Paula, Morag, work it out. Meet us by the geyser. Five, we're going to distract the V-types guarding the boulder, pull them away.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Jody, I'm hooked into Sam's feeds. The fungus is sprouting everywhere on Mor. Where it's densest, it's forming fruiting bodies. It's going to release spores, go airborne.

JODY MARSH: And since we're all already infected, it's going to push us into zombiedom really fast. Guys, get that equipment hot-wired now. Five, with me. To the boulder, run!

~

JODY MARSH: Sam, Five and I just shot past the boulder. There's a bunch of V-types chasing us.

SAM YAO: Morag got the drill tractor started. She and Paula are roaring towards you.

AMELIA SPENS: Sam, it's Amelia. I'm near Gaisgeach ruins with Janine and a few marines from the Undaunted. Had to flee the coast to avoid V-types. Janine's still out. I'm seeing red spores in the air. Tell me there's a plan.

SAM YAO: Stand by, Amelia. Jody, I see the tractor coming over a hill. It's going to hit the boulder head on!

[tractor crashes into boulder]

FRANCES DEMSPEY: The tractor rammed the boulder, pushed it aside! The V-types are pulling back to town. The geyser's unblocked!

SAM YAO: Nothing's happening.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh no! The rain's died down in that part of the isle. The storm's moving too fast. The tides have calmed around that blowhole's inlet and the whirlwinds are past East Loch. Even if the geyser does spurt, the silver mud won't be sucked into the storm!

JODY MARSH: Five, do you feel that burning in your lungs? The spores! [coughs] No! No! We are not losing to her! We need another option! [coughs]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The eye of the storm's approaching town. There's a blowhole there big enough for our needs, but it was sealed by the locals. They built a museum around it.

AMELIA SPENS: Then we need to unseal it. My marines salvaged what they could from the Undaunted. We have explosives. Also, my Armani dress.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Explosives might be enough to open the blowhole in town, but you have to do it before the winds blow the bulk of that storm past the museum. You guys need to meet Amelia at Gaisgeach fast. Run!

~

SAM YAO: Jody, Five, you're approaching the ruins. Watch out. The ground's splitting open left and right, creating fissures of fungus. Oh, [coughs] it's definitely in the air. Keep sleeves over your mouths.

JODY MARSH: I see Janine and Amelia huddled by that collapsed wall, marines with them. Janine's trying to stand.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Marsh, the Prime Minister informs me this is no time to be sleeping on the job.

PAULA COHEN: Janine, it's Paula. Morag and I are still in the tractor. The collision damaged the engine. Janine, if you start moving, you'll burn out fast.

JANINE DE LUCA: Unfortunately, Doctor, duty is not a matter of convenience. Marines. [marines come to attention] Present Miss Marsh your explosives.

AMELIA SPENS: Oh yes, obey her orders in a snap! Bloody military. Oh God, there's fungus growing on my fingertips. I refuse this, I simply refuse!

SAM YAO: Problem, guys. The town square's basically a red fungus forest. The stuff's everywhere. Shona's in the middle of it. The fungus is growing over her. She's half submerged by a mountain of it. Oh, that's awful.

JODY MARSH: We can't risk more fungus exposure. We need a path through that stuff.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The fungus doesn't respond well to being frozen! It doesn't die, but it's inhibited. If you had some of the chemicals from the ice bridge left...

AMELIA SPENS: There's a storehouse near the remains of the ice bridge on the Mor side. My forces may have fished several containers out of the sea and hidden them there. The Undaunted had far too little space for loot.

SAM YAO: I'm closest to that area, guys. I can reach that storehouse fastest.

JODY MARSH: Sam, go. Five, meet Sam at the storehouse. Make sure he gets the chemicals safely to us. Oh. Sorry, Janine.

JANINE DE LUCA: My orders precisely, Miss Marsh. Five, Miss Marsh and I will rendezvous with Dr. Cohen and evacuate any townspeople we can. We will meet you at the town.

AMELIA SPENS: I think... I'm feeling dizzy, Janine. I think I'd better stay here. The marines can cover me. God, there's fungus on my hands, my arms! Oh, I can feel it pulsing in my head! Five, for God's sake, hurry! For your Prime Minister, run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, that wooden shack is the storehouse. Sam's already inside.

[door creaks open and shut]

SAM YAO: Five! Five, over here! I found a container of the freezy chemical. Uh, can you carry it? [coughs] No, I'm okay. It's just a headache.

[door opens]

RORY: Sam. Sam, is that you?

SAM YAO: Frances, Rory just came in here. Rory from the shop. He's leaning on the doorway. Rory, are you okay? Look, step out of the shadows, eh?

RORY: Can you feel the tide in your head, the way it pulls? Help me, Sam.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Sam, careful! He could be turning.

RORY: I need help, Sam. The skincoats stabbed me. I'm bleeding. Please.

SAM YAO: Uh, Five, I'll-I'll check him for wounds. Rory, it's okay.

RORY: I was just out walking. I saw you. So did she. She's got so many eyes!

[RORY and SAM YAO struggle]

SAM YAO: Rory, get off. Five, gun down. You'll hit us both.

RORY: The whole island's throbbing in my head, but she's the loudest. She says I have to, Sam. She says drink up!

[liquid splashes]

SAM YAO: Five, stay back! Rory's not hurt. There's fungus growing on him. That was accelerant he poured on me. Oh God! Some went in my eyes. Five, run! Take that container to Janine. [coughs] I can feel it inside me, Five! Get away. You can't help me. You have to stop Shona. Tell Paula and Maxine – tell them they're my – tell them I'm sorry! Just run! Go!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, you're almost at the town. The fungus creates a hive mind for V-types. The more of it people have in their blood, the more it's linking them. Shona's piggybacking on that connection to control people! Like poor Rory. Sam's still in that shack. I've... I've lost him on comms!

JODY MARSH: Five, Janine and I are over here behind the boulder. There's the town square just ahead. We can't evacuate anyone. Fungus is covering buildings, streets, flowing out of pits in the ground. Shona's outside the museum with a line of V-types. She's half enveloped in fungus. It's rising around her like a cloak.

JANINE DE LUCA: The geyser is in the museum forecourt just behind the gates. We must get past Miss Reid.

JODY MARSH: Preferably with deadly force.

JANINE DE LUCA: Abel's priority must be to save, Miss Marsh, never to destroy. Though in this case, I would not begrudge that outcome.

JODY MARSH: Janine fixed the tractor.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Morag's charging the tractor into town, straight at Shona! Paula's on the back, pouring a petrol can over the side. Morag, don't wind the window down.

MORAG BROWN: [coughs] Shona Reid! Your ma was the kindest woman I ever knew, and she'd be ashamed of you 10 ways for this!

JANINE DE LUCA: The fungus is dragging Miss Reid out of the tractor's path like a tide. V-types are charging it. Paula is lighting the petrol. Burning fungus, that is our distraction!

SHONA REID: Morag Brown, I have had enough of your prattling tongue.

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, give me the container. The fungus dislikes my blood. I will run ahead through the square, lay down a path of ice. You and Jody follow with the explosives. The V-types are swarming the tractor, pulling Morag and Paula out! We can only save them and Mr. Yao through victory. Head for the museum! Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That's it, Five. Follow Janine. Stay on the ice path she's pouring on the fungus. You're halfway to the museum. Shona's seen you!

SHONA REID: I am the red god's favorite, Five. It'll take the world, but my isle will be paradise first! My blood has the perfect balance of silver to delay our union. It can embrace, not subsume, so I can savor it.

JODY MARSH: Five, there's a crowd coming after us. V-types. Townspeople half-turned. There's Paula and Morag, fungus growing on them!

SHONA REID: It's letting me steer them, Five. I'm better with people. My puppets find weapons tricky when they're turning, but they all have teeth.

JODY MARSH: You go ahead, Five. Take the explosives. I'll keep them back.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Jody, you can't kill the townspeople, and V-types are indestructible!

JODY MARSH: An arrow to the leg will still slow them, and maybe she'll feel it. [bowstring stretches, arrow whips through air] The half-turned townsfolk are up front. If I slow them, it'll trip the rest. If I don't, they'll overtake us. Go, Five! Follow the ice path! I'll buy you as long as I can. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMSPEY: You're almost there, Five. The geyser's in the museum forecourt under the roped off gazebo. Hurry, the eye of the storm is passing!

DUNCAN MACALLAN: Hello, Five. It's Shona here. You're a clever, stubborn mind. That's why I kept this body in reserve.

[DUNCAN MACALLAN and Runner Five struggle]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, get up! Get him off you! Jody's too far to help. I can't see Janine on comms. Does anyone copy? The chief just tackled Five!

DUNCAN MACALLAN: This one killed your friend by accident, Five. He cried over it. But he still served me. I was the only one bold enough to lead. He'd cry now, if I let him.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: There's fungus all over him. He's turning V-type fast! [gunshot, metal crumples] He crushed your gun like nothing. Five, he's going to bite. Get up! [zombie splatters] Oh my God! Janine, you caved the chief's skull with a mace!

JANINE DE LUCA: Apologies for the delay, Five. Had to borrow a weapon from the museum. Rather heavy for everyday use.

JODY MARSH: Five, I'm falling back your way! The mob's inches behind me. Throw those explosives at the geyser.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Good throw, Five. The chief's gone full V-type. He's getting back up. Everyone, get away from the museum before the explosives blow. Run!

~

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, get down. We're beyond the square. The explosives – [shouts]

[explosion, water rushes]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That did it! The museum blowhole's open. It's erupting with silver.

JODY MARSH: Five, Janine, Shona's mob is running from the geyser. There are no whirlwinds hitting the town square. I don't see Paula or Morag. Janine isn't breathing. Janine, get up! Frances, there's just drizzle, no silver rain! Why isn't it - ? [thunder rolls, rain pours, JODY MARSH shudders]

FRANCES DEMSPEY: The rain's falling! Gleaming silver... it's beautiful. The fungus is wilting wherever it touches, turning to ash. The V-types are dropping dead!

[JANINE DE LUCA gasps]

JODY MARSH: Janine! She's breathing!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: It must be the rain! It's soaking her in the material her nanites are made from. If there's enough, they can use it to reproduce, repair her!

PAULA COHEN: Jody, Five. It was in my head, the fungus, and then it just... faded. Morag's unconscious. Oh no, Janine!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You need to get as much silver into her system as you can. Jody, I've spotted Shona. The fungus is all melted away from her. She's fleeing town towards the cliffs.

PAULA COHEN: Jody, Five, go after her. It's okay, I've got Janine. Make sure Shona doesn't get away. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Five, Jody, Shona's just ahead of you along the cliffs.

JODY MARSH: Stop right there, Shona. I've got an arrow aimed at your back.

SHONA REID: Look at that sunset. It's peeking through the clouds. Gorgeous. Are you going to shoot me?

JODY MARSH: I should. You deserve it.

SHONA REID: Go on, then. Go on, then! It was mine! Do you understand? I was going to be powerful. I was going to rise with the island. I was going to last forever! It chose me. It was mine. I was going to see my mum. It promised me.

JODY MARSH: We don't kill the powerless at Abel. It's not what Ellie or Tom would have wanted. Five, grab her. She's under arrest.

SHONA REID: You can't arrest me. I'm part of the land. [runs away]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh my God. She threw herself over the cliff. She's hit the rocks below. She's... gone.

SAM YAO: Five? Jody? It's Sam. I'm okay. The fungus in me just died. I felt it die. I uh... I think I know where the Edda is. While the fungus was in me, I could feel all these memories, feel some of Shona's thoughts. There's something major hidden in a cave near Gaisgeach. Amelia felt it, too. She's heading there with her marines. You better join them, make sure this is for real. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You're at the ruins, Five. Looks like everyone's gathered there. Morag, Paula, Janine, Sam, Amelia and her troops. Silver rain's sweeping over the archipelago. The fungus is dying everywhere. Anyone who hadn't turned full V-type is recovering.

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, Mr. Yao alerted us to the Edda situation.

PAULA COHEN: Janine's vitals are stable, Five. The nanites are healing her fast, now they're in good numbers.

JANINE DE LUCA: I owe you my life, Five. I owe all of you. Thank you. Our losses here were not in vain. We have wiped out the fungus in the Far Hebrides, and we have the Edda.

MORAG BROWN: Aye, it was in that cave over yonder. Bloody well hidden, too.

JANINE DE LUCA: We will remember the fallen, Five. Tom and Ellie will not be forgotten. Nor will the laird.

SAM YAO: It's kind of wonderful, isn't it? The silver rain, the sunset poking through the clouds. I think... I think they'd have liked this.

JODY MARSH: The people here are safe, Sam. We're safe. That's what would have made them happy.

AMELIA SPENS: Yes, yes, et cetera. The important thing is we have the Edda. [paper rustles] And about time, too. Now we can get back to the mainland, work out how to wipe out all the V-types and assorted zoms forever, and have a nice comfortable... oh.

SAM YAO: Oh? Oh, what? Amelia, what's written in there?

AMELIA SPENS: Ah. Well, obviously I now have more familiarity with Old Norse than I ever desired to have, and if I'm reading this correctly, I think we may have a problem.

[thunder rolls]

~

[awainadwam]

On Caol shore with my folks and my nephew.

Styled in Deep Dream Generator.

I like knowing what place names mean...

Caol (the big village behind us) = Slender

Loch Linnhe (the body of water) = Lake Pool (only it’s a sea-loch, so maybe that should be Pool Sound)

An Linne Dhubh (the specific northern stretch of Loch Linnhe seen here) = The Black Pool

Loch Abar (the old name for An Linne Dhubh) = Lake of the Marshes (but again, sea-loch, so maybe it should be Marshy Sound)

Meall an t-Slamain (the hill across the water) = Lump-hill of the Curds

Camas na Gall (a bay at the foot of the hill, indiscernible here) = Stranger’s Bay

Rubha Dearg (a tiny island next to the bay, also indiscernible) = Red Peninsula (it’s connected to the mainland at low tide)

Breuncamus (the old name for the Caol bay before the modern village was built) = Am Breun Chamas = The Stinking Bay

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

His trip in Kinlochleven started for the final leg the steep climb out of the town and up towards the Lairig Mor.

The final leg of the West Highland Way is between Kinlochleven and Fort William. While there are no steep sections, the effort mounts up as it does involve crossing over from one glen to the other a few times. This is a steady walk to complete the West Highland Way, which He shouldn’t pose a problem after days of walking.

The Lairig Mòr, between Kinlochleven and Glen Nevis. He walked The Lairig Mòr a hugely significant part of the Highlands. Its a long, broad pass was the route taken by leaders of the MacDonald clan who had escaped the murderous night of the Campbells’ treachery.

At the far end of the lairig is a great cairn. Tradition says that a passing MacDonald should add a stone; a Campbell should remove one.

Glencoe Massacre Memorial. In Scotland, murder has always been a dreadful crime But there is a worse crime in the Highlands. It is called Murder under Trust. That’s what it was. That’s why the Massacre of Glencoe has reverberated so strongly in Scottish history.

The West Highland Way is primarily a walking route. He had 15 miles (23km) go until we reached Nevis Bridge roundabout.

The final leg sets off from Kinlochleven up Lairigmor on the old military road towards Glen Nevis. Just before the descent to Glen Nevis, the West Highland Way passes the hill fort of Dun Deardail, which was built around 2,500 years ago and was destroyed in an intense fire.

One of these ‘vitrified’ forts, Dun Deardail in Glen Nevis, was recently excavated over the course of a three-year project funded by Forestry Commission Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Nevis Landscape Partnership. This Iron Age hillfort was built in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, around 2,500 years ago, and was eventually destroyed in a catastrophic fire.

The Pap of Glencoe The climax of his walk was approaching, and finally, Ben Nevis’s massive bulk would fill his view ahead (but he couldn't see well because low-lying clouds covered Ben Nevis)

One thing’s for certain, he would have had the most impressive views of Ben Nevis from the fort.

Dun Deardail impressive views of Ben Nevis.

The West Highland Way, heading towards Ben Nevis. In parts, in front of him the heavy conifer canopy on the track. Ben Nevis’s south-western peak Carn Dearg dominates and Five Finger Gully’s steep rockiness display.

The WHW diverges from its former route at Blar a’Chaorainn, where the metaled road forges north towards the west end of Fort William. He can still follow a more direct way, past Lochan Lùnn Dà-Bhrà, if he fancies the prospect of 3.8 miles (6 km) of hard asphalt.

*BTW not confuse Ben Nevis with Ben Vane. Ben Vane is another peak for a hike in the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, it’s not part of the WHW.

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Day 26 - To Achnahaird

Friday 21st May

Just before I left this morning Sam and Gabriella pulled over in their self-converted Crafter. I had originally met them at Braveheart in Glen Nevis, and then by coincidence, the following night in Glenbrittle on Skye. We were the only two vans in the car park. They have since been in the Outer Hebrides, so we might call the first two meetings a coincidence, but this one as well...just strange.. They are good company and at only 23 years old probably the youngest on the camper road at present - bringing down the average age from well above 60.. Gabriella runs her jewellery business from the van, and Sam, between jobs (was Test and Trace, now looking to get into camper conversions), helps out. Crafting in a Crafter indeed. There aren’t many Crafters on the road, so we do stand out somewhat.

The stretch of road heading away from Dundonnell may be one of the most scenic in Scotland but it has a very dark history, and is known as Destitution Road.

When a potato fungus from America hit the Highland in the 1840s the effects devastated the country. Many were left starving and walked the seashores looking for any kind of nourishment while dysentery, influenza, scurvy, typhus and cholera killed in large numbers. Some help came from wealthy landowners, but soon there was a call for those in need to be made to work for their rations. A ‘destitution test’ was administered to ensure that each man worked their required hours. This labour included the construction of ‘destitution’ roads which pioneered routes in remote parts of the Highlands.

The stretch from Dundonnell to Braemore is one of the most famous of the Destitution Roads. The A832 road enters the Dundonnell Gorge where it climbs alongside the waterfalls on the Dundonnell River before leaving at Fain Bridge. It then travels across open moors reaching an altitude of 332 metres, close to the peaks of An Teallach and Beinn Dearg.

A beer, good conversation and a luxurious carpet for the dog to sleep on - last night at the Dundonnell Hotel.

This is the Rhue, or Rubha Cadail, lighthouse, and was built as late as 1952, so it isn’t one of the Stevenson Lighthouses. It’s close enough to the road that it’s never had a keeper live on site, so it’s small, and therefore not of interest as a private home or AirBnB rental, as most others are. It guards the entrance to Loch Broom and Ullapool’s harbour.

It was my weekly shop and refuel. So it was into the small Tesco’s in Ullapool. There’s still just the one tiny fuel station which really struggles with the big motorhomes, the result being queues on the road. Two motorhomes fill the place. The Royal Hotel kindly offers water fill ups for free, as the owner has a campervan himself. But, as to be expected, the further north, the less facilities... but still the same number of campers / motorhomes/ motorbikes / cyclists / vintage cars on the road. This summer I’m sure there will be times when the infrastructure cannot cope.

At Drumruie on the A835 the official NC500 route takes a left and passes under the spectacular ridge of Stac Pollaidh. I’ve taken groups up here a few times. It is a ‘mountain in miniature’ as it’s quite easy and a relatively short walk to gain the ridge, where then there is some exposed scrambling. It’s only just over 600 metres high. The problem baby twenty years ago was that the approach paths were heavily eroded, and becoming more so. It is very popular.

For me it was on to Achnahaird and it’s beach to try and find a stopover. SearchForSites has some good reviews about the beach car park, and indeed it is a great location, but there is a sign, which looks new, stating no overnight stops. Despite that two vans were settled for the evening.

We had an hour on the superb beach, which has surely one of the most incredible backdrops of all, with the Assynt mountains (Stac Pollaidh in side profile, Suilven and Cul Beag). The rain of the morning had given way to a clear evening, but windy. Just tremendous views. We found a little spot a mile or so up the road and settled in for the European Challenge Cup Final.