The Last Salmon Fisher

Dochie Cameron, seen here in his coble Iolair, is one of the last traditional salmon fishermen working the coast of western Scotland. Years ago, Dochie, now a very young 72, was employed in the salmon fishing industry based on Ardnamurchan's north coast, at a time when there were still good salmon to be caught. Today, what little he catches is either a cross between wild and farmed salmon which have escaped from the fish farms, or it has been mauled by seals who are becoming increasingly clever at getting into his net - there are no less than 32 of them lying out on the rocks in Port na Luinge.

Each summer, Dochie sets his nets off Ormsaigbeg. A curtain-like 'leader' net stretches from the shoreline out to a triangular net, a little like a seine net, which has its narrow entrance nearest the leader. It's called a 'bag', and it's held open by the structure seen near the more distant orange buoy in the picture. Salmon swimming along the shore meet the leader and turn seaward, becoming trapped in the bag. Twice a day Dochie sets out in his boat, with his terrier for company, to check his catch by lifting the bag.

This year Dochie faces yet another problem. Recently he removed these two dogfish from inside the net, and the only salmon he has caught was chewed to pieces, probably by friends of theirs.

The salmon-fishing season used to run from February to mid-August, but it has now been cut to June to September. Each year Dochie says that, if things don't improve next season, he'll give up. It can hardly be worth his fuel costs and the heartache for the pitiful return he is getting. If and when he stops, Ardnamurchan's salmon run, and its traditional fishery, will finally have died, and we will have lost yet another link to the past.

Many thanks to Sue Cameron for photos and story

More about salmon netting here

Pictures of the Day

An upside-down view of Mingary Pier

Morning glow over Kilchoan Bay

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for the pictures

Picture of the Day

A damper day yesterday, the recently-shorn

sheep turning their backs to the wind.

Ardnamurchan Transitions Project - 2

In the years they have been working at Swordle, the team has found some 30 archaeological sites, but the main site is the chambered cairn to the east of Swordle Bay House - pictured. This dates back to the Neolithic, perhaps 5,500 to 6,000 years ago - much older than the great pyramid at Giza near Cairo, which is about 4,600 years old.

The oldest event seems to be a cremation, dated at about 3,700BC, which has left blackened earth onto which stones have been piled. In a later event, two 'box chambers' formed of slabs of local stone were found to contain human bones. These were not complete skeletons, but suggested that the bodies had been allowed to decompose, perhaps by being left out in the open in the manner of some North American Indian burials, the remains then being collected together, wrapped, and placed in the tomb. Finding bones in any British burial of this period is unusual - but these are also remarkably well preserved.

A further, complete skeletal body has also been found, buried crouched in a stone box with some Beaker pottery and the claws of a bird of prey, the pottery suggesting that this is Bronze Age. Also of Bronze Age is a 7m diameter kerb cairn faced off with flat, vertically placed rocks, with an entrance and another stone box containing human remains. With this are four beads made of jet, a mineral mined near Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, evidence of the complexity of trade that was established by this time, some 4,300 years ago.

The team reckons that the site contains almost 2,000 years of Scotland's history. As if this isn't enough, they are hoping to obtain some exceptionally accurate dates from the organic materials they have found. If this happens, then the Swordle Cairn will take a prominent place in Scotland's archaeological history.

The cairn is arrowed in this map

A Kilchoan Cycling Circuit

From Melissa Glackin & Kenny Clarke

Warm weather, beautiful scenery - there are few rides that could rival the round trip from Kilchoan, taking in Salen, Strontian, Lochaline, Fishnish and Tobermory. The 75 miles pedalled last Tuesday included fabulous views, rolling hills, sparkling seas (viewed aboard two timely ferries) and a variety of road surfaces ranging from velvety smooth to potholed and gravel ridden.

It is easy to see why Jon Snow, Channel 4 news broadcaster, rates this as one of his favourite cycles in Britain. I too can highly recommend it!

A map of the route is here.