The blaze of lights off Mingary Pier last night was the Northern Lighthouse Board's
Pharos. Quite why she has to be so brilliantly lit up is a bit of a mystery - there's very little danger of anyone running into her in this anchorage. Perhaps she's the NLB's contribution towards our Christmas lights.
Pharos had weighed anchor by 8.30 this morning, sailing south. She can just be seen off Tobermory in this picture of this morning's sunrise, another glorious event which gave way to a fine morning with a light northerly breeze.
By this time of year, from our viewpoint along Ormsaigbeg, the sun is rising across the western tip of Morvern. It's only three weeks to the winter solstice, when the sunrise will be at its most southerly point.
There's a new bench at the end of Ormsaigbeg for everyone's enjoyment of one of the finest views on the peninsula, particularly so on a day like today. It's been provided by the West Ardnamurchan Community Council to replace the one that fell apart. This is much more substantially built - in a prison - so should last rather longer in this exposed position.
By this afternoon clouds had begun to obscure the sky. The wind is forecast to back through some 180 degrees overnight, so by the end of tomorrow it'll be in the south and bringing us rain.
The photograph shows the tidal lochan by the Ferry Stores,
Lochan na Nal, with some of the wildfowl which are wintering along the coast, mostly mallard.
Sturdy looking bench.look forward to enjoying the view from it in summer.
ReplyDeleteKia Orana from the Cook Islands.... google strikes again. Here I am in idle pursuit of the Sparrowhawk and Goshawk (car ferries in Auckland before the Harbour Bridge was built) and out comes a reference to Kilchoan..... and an instant detour to your magnificent blog.
ReplyDeleteI should explain that I'm sitting in a house by the lagoon on the north east coast of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands; not ten feet from me is a large picture. up behind McKinnon's house (across from the Kilchoan Hotel) of my brother, sister and I feeding hens with that glorious view out to the channel between Ormsaigmore(?) and Mull, with the church (kirk?) steeple in the background. This was back in the days of calor gas, kerosene lanterns and the coal range.
My parents emigrated in 1967 (often cited annual escapes from Stockport to Kilchoan as their motivation for emigrating to clean, green NZ) As for me.... well those days scouring the beach by Ardnamurchan Point for cowrie shells obviously had a deeply corrupting influence.... it was life on a tropical island for me thank you....
... that said, I have only returned to the UK twice since leaving and on both occasions a return to Kilchoan has been very high on the list of priorities. While you can't beat that bracing air (33degreesC a couple of afternoons here this week), your brilliant photos will do very nicely until I am next over the equator!
Cheers
Tim
Hi Tim - Amazed that The Kilchoan Diary appears when you're searching for sparrowhawks, but very pleased you found it and that you enjoy both the photos and the connection it offers back to West Ardnamurchan. With our temperatures dipping to zero at night, and snow on all the mountain peaks to south and north of us, very much envy you your 33C. If you're interested in old photos of West Ardnamurchan, try the 'West Ardnamurchan Vintage Photographs' site - the link is in the right-hand column of the blog, under 'Website Links'. Jon
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for that Jon; I have a bunch of scanned slides from the sixties that my Dad put on a disk for us and some of those might be of more general interest on the vintage photos site.
DeleteMy parents were introduced to the McKinnons as a holiday home in, I think , 1963 and went each year in June (brrr!)with our last visit in June 1967. Mrs McKinnon moved into a sort of glorified garden shed at the back of their house each summer and took in a series of guests; if I remember correctly her husband was a merchant seaman - usually away when we were there; I last met them in July 1987 on my first trip back to the UK by which time they had a caravan instead.
We were fascinated by the place - cows to bring in to the byre for milking, chickens to feed,cups of the strongest tea served up and her two dogs, Melba being prone to disappearing for minutes at a time down the holes of huge rabbit warrens that seemed to dot West Ardnamurchan in those days.
Mrs McK gave me my first taste of a "foreign language" as she would chat away in Gaelic to friends and neighbours, though we had considerable trouble understanding her thick Highland accent as it was! And there was, in those days quite a cast of characters around the place.
Some places have changed beyond all recognition over the past half century; Kilchoan has obviously not; I suspect that like the outer islands of the Cook Islands, this reflects the fundamental challenge of making a life and a living in a remote location - islands such as Penrhyn, Mangaia, Atiu etc empty out as people leave behind places of great beauty and tranquillity and flock to the bright lights of the big cities (in our case those of Australasia).
Anyway enough of that.... late this afternoon I ahd to smile, having just rediscovered the "Middle Earth" of the West Highlands. My two sons and I came to the end of the runway here on Rarotonga to find Air New Zealand's fully illustrated "Hobbit" 777 turning in front of us, taking off back to Auckland - the illustrations,runes and motifs the length of its fuselage reminding me that there is a very special corner of Scotland that really is not too far removed from Tolkein's world.
As we say here; Kia Orana e Kia Manuia
Tim
Hi Tim - Not much use of the Gaelic here any more, sadly, and I'm not aware of anyone milking their own cows; even the rabbit population is sparse. Times have changed here, not always for the better, but it's still a super place.
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to write a short piece which brings in both your visits here in the 60s and your present tropcial paradise location in the Cook islands, with some appropriate - contrasting - pictures, I'd love to publish it. You can see from the blog the sort of length, and pictures are best of they're about 500MB. My email is kilchoandiary@btinternet.com Jon