Turning in Land

We left you with us just heading off to the Bridge over the Atlantic.  It is a old bridge that spans the Atlantic between the mainland and the Island of Seil.  This was a real tourist attraction 100 years ago, and is still probably one of the most photographed  bridges in Scotland.

 

I had promised Jenny a nice pub lunch but unfortunately the pub was shut for food, but served a nice pint. (if I had a pound for every time over the last 30 or so years that I’ve been promised lunch and the pub/café/ restaurant was shut for some reason, I’d be sailing a much bigger boat!)

Dunstaffnage and Oban

We then set off to Dunstaffnage to meet Dugald and Amy who were coming up for the weekend.  We visited McCaig’s Tower, one of those things that we have seen hundreds of times perched at the top of Oban bay  but never actually been to.  It was built by a wealthy philanthropist banker  for £5K in 1897 when times were hard in Oban to provide work for the local people. Unfortunately he died just after the outer walls were built and his vision for the building was never fulfilled.

We also visited Dunstaffnage Castle. This is one of the chain of Castles on the western defences in Scotland originally constructed after defeating the Vikings. Built in the 13th Century which makes it one of the oldest castles in Scotland. It is maintained and managed by Historic Scotland and is an excellent visit. (we have to support Historic Environment Scotland as our younger son, Fergus, is an apprentice stonemason with them and looks after and repairs some of their properties on the west coast)

We ended up in Dunstaffnage for a few days as the wind got up to a force 8 for a couple of days .  Had a visit from the local constabulary (thanks Fred!).  Why is it you always feel guilty when you see a police uniform at your door.  Turned out to be one of our old friends who knew of our trip and popped down to say Hi. Good to catch up with you Joe –– and thanks for all your excellent advice about not sailing into things in the North Sea…….we’ll keep an eye out for random oil rigs!

 

Appin to Fort William

Once the Kids left we continued north to Dallen’s Bay which is a beautiful little marina run by a father and son. Interesting guy, was a ski instructor in the Alps for 30 years.  Set up a business taking people water Skiing and eventually branched out into boat moorings.  He now has over 100 in the bay and every one of them taken.  We did a cycle round the Appin coast one day.  Beautiful. Great wee bike ride . (Appin or An Apainn in Gaelic and is part of the Lynn of Lorn National Scenic Area and is a combination of eascapes and rugged and mountainous country inland – I was very glad to have battery power to help with the uphill bits of the cycle)

Next stop was Fort William to meet Jo and Pete (2 friends of ours from Dunblane) and Fergus , who joined for a couple of days. But before that we had to pass through the tidal gap at the Corran Narrows guarded by another Stevenson Lighthouse.

Fort William

We moored up at the Lochaber Yacht Club. Nice old boy called Hamish sorted us out (he seemed to be running the place single handed), he must be well over 70 and later in the day I saw him wandering down the Jetty in his Scuba gear to fix a mooring.

Entering the Canal

Once in the Canal you are then faced with Neptune’s stair case which is a set of 8 locks all one after the other. (the second gate of each lock is the first of the next lock, saves water and moves the boats up or down hill more efficiently and wastes less water – an amazing feat of engineering and all build by men with pick axes and horses and carts) To make it more entertaining they drop coach loads of people off to stand at the side in the desperate hope of seeing some great disaster. Luckily we disappointed them all.  Pete made a few new friends offering his nautical wisdom to any tourist who was foolish enough to ask!!!

Gairlochy and Loch Lochy

This was a beautiful place to stop. Very peaceful.  Pete and I cycled the 12 miles back to Fort William on the Bromptons to move the cars up.  Impressed with Pete as he had not been on a bike for a number of years. (he claims that last time he cycled any distance was in 1995!)

In the morning, just as we were leaving Gillian,  (Friend of a friend ) popped her head in to say hello as she lives there and was off for her morning swim in the Loch, which she does all the year round.  Beautiful location but bloody cold.

That’s it for this update. Bit of a long one but with such brilliant weather, we took hundreds of pics and were having too much fun to update the blog, sorry!

Next time it will be in to the North Sea!!!!!