Monday 8 February 2016

A Walk in the Sun

The forecast suggested that the weather today might be an improvement on recent form so we took the car to where the silage bales are piled by the bridge across the Allt Choire Mhuilinn and walked due south along the burn's right bank, directly towards the coast (See map at bottom of post). To our left Ben Hiant, its summit wrapped in mist, lay in shadow but that blue sky above it held some promise.

By the time we reached the coast all hope of sunshine had vanished as layers of low, heavy clouds rolled across the entrance to Loch Sunart, bringing occasional drops of rain. Maclean's Nose is to the left, with the Marine Harvest fish farm in front of it, and Morvern lies across the loch.

We had seen a couple of diggers at the mouth of the Allt Choire Mhuilinn a few days ago. Now we know what they were doing, replacing the footbridge which was washed away in a storm a couple of years ago; and the job has been done much better this time, so it's unlikely to get lost again even if the river rises very high.

Looking across the entrance to Loch Sunart, with Drimnin and Drimnin church silhouetted on the Morvern side, we saw one of our local fishing boats laying creels beyond a new group of buoys which mark the location of the wave energy machine which is being installed near the fish farm, in part to provide it with electricity.

We walked east along the beach towards Maclean's Nose. We've done this walk so many, many times, yet we'll never tire of it. This beach always has something happening along it, and the main thing today was that the sun began to appear.

Looking back along the beach, we could see what a huge difference the repointing has made to Mingary Castle, which now stands out brightly against the background of the hills behind Ormsaigbeg.

This beach collects more rubbish than any other on Ardnamurchan, a fact which we've ascribed to it being down wind of Tobermory - certainly that notice to the right of the boot came from Tobermory. However, it's interesting rubbish. This little collage includes no less than four items of footwear: a boot, a trainer, a water shoe, and a flipflop. Incidentally, because of the flotsam, it's the best beach for a proper beach barbecue, and certainly the best if you're looking for somewhere to drop out of society and live the Crusoe life.

We walked almost as far as the fish farm and then climbed an almost vertical, and rather too slippery slope, to reach the....

....rolling grasslands of the Estate grazing land, bathed in warm sunshine, across which we wandered back to the car.

Map courtesy StreetMap.

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