North Coast Walk

When there has been heavy rain, and it isn't a day for the hills, we'll walk along one of the more remote roads. So a few days ago we left the car where the Kilmory/Ockle road crosses the Achateny Water and continued along the road, going through Branault and....

....passing the turn down to Kilmory, along which a flock of recently-shorn sheep was making its way.

We stopped off at the Kilmory graveyard to pay our respects to two people we'd known who are buried there, and to stand silent for a few moments at the two war graves, at left, both of unknown merchant navy personnel washed up on the coasts of Ardnamurchan, one in August and the other in December 1940.

This view is from the east of Kilmory, looking across the township's houses to Fascadale and Meall Bhuidhe Mor, with patches of sunlight scampering across the landscape.

Further on, we came to the steep hill down to Swordle, where the white teeth of breakers were eating at the rocky coastline. On this side of the wall that runs across the foreground is the site of the clachan of Swordle Chorrach, cleared of its people in 1853 to make way for a sheep farm.

On the opposite side of the road from where this picture was taken....

....there's an old lime kiln. The Swordle community was fortunate to have an extensive outcrop of limestone which could be burnt for use both on the fields and for building.

On our way back to the car we noticed, without too much surprise in view of the recent weather, these two large toadstools at the side of the road. They resembled a pair of breadcrust tortoises mating.

Sanna Wet-Weather Walk

We've enjoyed over 30mm of pure Kilchoan sunshine over the last twenty-four hours so the hills are sopping and, with rain continuing this morning, didn't seem much fun for walking, so we repaired to Sanna again for a short constitutional. When we arrived, and as we walked past the mission hall, it was raining.

There was far less weed and other flotsam along the beaches than we had expected after yesterday's strong southwesterly - which was disappointing as strong winds in summer often wash in interesting objects.

With the rain continuing the burns have carved deep canyons where they run out across the beaches. This is at Port na Tuine where the burn's waters rarely come across the whole beach.

Then the sun came out, making the white sands of the beaches glow, but this flash of light and warmth didn't last and....

....it rained steadily as we walked the rest of the beaches. We found the Sanna burn running the colour of good whisky, staining the waters of bays at the northern end of the beaches....

....while this dunlin looked lost and alone amongst the ringed plovers and oystercatchers.

In the machair dunes the sun came out again. Two juvenile wheatears were feeding amongst the wet grass stalks. It seems no time since their fathers arrived to perform the displays that would decide which won the choice breeding grounds.

On the way home, approaching Achnaha, in another sudden patch of sunshine....

....a rare snow goose passed heading north. We've seen a snow goose once before, a couple of years ago - Diary post here - feeding contentedly in a field with greylags. Why is this one heading north in such a very determined manner?

Ships & Birds

We crossed the Sound of Mull to Tobermory this morning on the eight o'clock sailing for the usual reason - a visit to the dentist - through weather which looked, and felt, more like winter than full summer.

Fred Olsen's Boudicca, a regular visitor to these waters, is a large ship carrying over 500 passengers but she was lost in the mist in a Tobermory Bay which, as the mist began to lift....

....was crowded with a variety of ships, including the Lady of Avenel (nearer) and the Dutch registered staysail ketch Steady - more about her here.

Once the weather decides to change, it does so quickly here. Within a few minutes of our landing the mist was rolling back to reveal a marina crammed with yachts mirrored in the still waters of the bay.

 Despite the presence of a cruise ship the town was remarkably empty, probably because....

....many of Boudicca's passengers were being whisked away to enjoy a wildlife cruise. This is Sealife Survey's Sula Beag.

On our way back across the Sound we, too, were able to enjoy the wildlife. At first we found a few guillemots, some with young in tow, but....

 ....they were soon joined by gannets diving from high above, a sure sign that they were working at bait fish. Then, as we neared Kilchoan....

....the air was suddenly full of sea birds. There are reports that, while the mackerel have been in for some weeks, if not in great numbers, there are plenty of good-sized sand eels, a welcome arrival as we haven't seen them in any numbers for some time.

Sanna

Sanna's coastline is a series of bays, each with a wide sand beach, together stretching for over a kilometre from this one, the most southerly, Port na Tuine, to Sanna Burn at the north.

It's midsummer. You would expect Sanna's glorious white beaches to be crowded. We arrived today just after nine and in the next three hours met only two people.

At low tide, as it was today, the sands continue on the north side of the burn, running out towards a small headland on the other side of which....

....lies this secluded bay, a place which is ideal for children, where they can swim in shallow, protected waters, scramble over the rocks, and hunt in the rock pools.

Sanna is a place of peace, a silent place except....

....when the RAF, which only seems to practise its low flying when the weather is fine, comes by.

We spent most of the morning wandering across the land to the north of the Sanna Burn, where....

....today's wildlife highlights included this sandpiper, not in the sea as one might expect but on a rock in the middle of the burn, and....

....this grayling butterfly. They're usually well camouflaged on the rocks which are their preferred resting place but this one chose some lichen to sit on.

There are plenty of orchids still in bloom, including northern marsh, heath spotted, common spotted and, just coming out, the fragrant orchids. This is the last of this season's lesser butterfly orchids.

Sanna Orchids

Yesterday started under a bank of low cloud through which the sun somehow, occasionally, managed to shine, and with a forecast that promised rain by mid-morning, so I set off early for Sanna with the intention of checking whether any of its orchids, for which the place should be famous, had yet appeared. This picture was taken from the Sanna road, looking across to Beinn na h-Imeilte with its summit lost in cloud.

The first thing that hits you as you climb out of the car at Sanna at this time of year is the song of a dozen skylarks high above, all trying to out-do each other.

A good place for orchids in late May and early June is at the Sanna Bheag end of the township, on either side of the track as one passes the Sanna mission building, but none has yet appeared, though....

....it's quite possible that they have appeared but became someone's lunch.

However, below Sanna Bheag itself a few of the early marsh orchids are just coming in to flower, in the usual stunning colours. Give them a week or so and we may have a spectacular display.

From Sanna Bheag I walked along the beach, the sea calm and at mid-tide under a grey sky, and the sands deserted of humans but....

....with their usual avian inhabitants, including this lone dunlin in its summer plumage, which kept running away until it was close to the oystercatcher, after which it felt secure enough to allow me to approach.

On the north side of the Sanna burn there were more brightly coloured orchids but this may be a different species, perhaps the early purple orchid rather than the early marsh, but....

....the highlight of the day was finding this orchid which is very likely to be one of the butterfly orchids. To be certain whether it is the greater or lesser means a return to Sanna once the flowers are fully out in a few days' time.

By this time the rain had arrived so I returned to the car, not from any concern about getting wet but because photography in driving rain isn't much fun.

Sanna: Low Tide

Low tide at Sanna reveals great expanses of sand across which to wander, space shared with....

....the gulls and the occasional wader, like this ringed plover.

In places, the upper beach is cut by the meandering courses of the burns where they flow out onto the sands. Over the generations, the drier, looser sand has been blown inland by the westerlies to form dunes covered with marram grass - the machair.

Port na Tuine lies at the southern end of Sanna's series of bays. It's more confined than the other bays, and faces straight out to the ocean, so it experiences the heaviest waves. During last winter, they removed much of the sand from the area of the beach in the foreground of this picture - and then carefully replaced it.

The Bay

This is the bay below our house, picture taken a couple of days ago in rather mucky weather. It's where we keep our kayaks, tied down at this time of year but....

....ready to launch in minutes in the summer. We once spotted a basking shark in the bay. We were eating supper but we were out paddling with it within eight minutes.

It's also a place where the family goes swimming, the earliest that ever occurred being in April.

It's a lovely little bay marred, perhaps, by being stony, yet we have never known its name - until this morning when we asked someone we should have asked years ago. The answer was pretty obvious: Port na Clachan, the port of stones.