Bogha Caol Ard

It's been a beautiful day today, sunny, with a gentle easterly breeze, and the sort of sudden warmth that makes one - foolishly - think that spring may have arrived.

This feature, Bogha Caol Ard, is typical of the coastline along the south side of Ormsaigbeg. The shoal running parallel to the coast is formed largely of narrow sills of dolerite, a hard igneous rock intruded into the existing rocks at the time of the great Ardnamurchan volcano. At low tide, like this, it's a favourite spot for otters who have caught a large fish and want a piece of convenient land upon which to sit and eat it, and for sea eagles who like a resting place with a view.

The sea has then formed a bank of shingle connecting the shoal to the beach. Incoming waves curve round the ends of the shoal, piling shingle behind it. Geographers call this feature a 'tombolo', a word derived from the Latin tumulus, but it's interesting to note that Wikipedia suggests that the feature may also be called an 'ayre', a word derived from the Norse eyrr, meaning a 'gravel beach'.

Perhaps eyrr is where the Ard in its name comes from, though it may be the Celtic aird, meaning a 'height'. Bogha, which is Norse, means a 'hidden rock' , 'shoal' or 'breaker', and caol, Celtic, means 'slender'. So perhaps the name means 'the gravel beach attached to a slender shoal'.

At low spring tide the bottom of these rock-strewn beaches is exposed, and it's formed of fine sand, a wonderful place for children to play as there are always small rivulets of water running across it which can be channelled and dammed. Kayakers like it less as it has a strange consistency which causes it to stick to the bottoms of their boats, making launching hard work.