An Ardnamurchan Evening

Never have the collective weather forecasters seemed so uncertain of themselves than yesterday, when they started by predicting a fine day, then changed their minds and talked about rain, then thought that, well, maybe it would sort of be okay. As it was, we had a cloudy day with a little drizzle, followed by a truly beautiful Ardnamurchan evening.

The sudden fine weather brought lots of people out. At nine in the evening we walked down to the bay below our house and then along the seashore, turning uphill to follow the western fence between the township and the common grazings, coming onto the road near what is called the Twin's House, named in honour of the two old ladies who lived there for many years. The photo above, taken from there, looks across Kilchoan Bay to the bright slopes of Ben Hiant, with the houses of Pier Road picked out by the late sunshine.

Taken from the same point, this looks across the western arm of the Sound of Mull to the bay called Port Chill Bhraonain, with Glengorm Castle standing in the sunshine above it. Port Chill Bhraonain, according to the Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments in Scotland here, probably means the port of the Chapel of St Brendan, though there is no physical evidence of a chapel nearby. Not that the area round Glengorm Castle is short of historical landmarks, as can be seen on the map here.

We had hardly arrived home when we had a visitor, a pine marten who appeared on the front terrace wall to scavenge some of the breadcrumbs we had put out for the birds. This particular animal has been around a fair amount recently. He's quite small, so we think he may be a juvenile. He sat on the wall for a few minutes, then crossed the path and jumped up onto the dry-stone wall that runs along the side of our property - a favourite route of his up the hill into the brambles at the back.