Lysblink Seaways - Day 9, Scallastle Bay

Last night, the Kingdom of Fife successfully towed the Lysblink Seaways to Scallastle Bay.  They were accompanied by the Coastguard's Emergency Towing Vessel Herakles, the Forth Jouster, and the small white boat seen yesterday, now identified as the Schiehallion out of Oban.

Scallastle Bay, arrowed, lies near the southeast end of the Sound of Mull and is, as can be seen, an ideal anchorage in the continuing stormy weather. However, the story is that, on arrival, the convoy found the tug Sally Ann, towing fish farm nets, already occupying the anchorage.  When asked to move, the Sally Ann managed to get rope wrapped round her propellor.

During the night, the large tug Luca arrived from Norway.  It is understood that, once the salvage master is sure that she's safe for it, the Luca will tow the Lysblink Seaways to Liverpool for repairs.  So we may yet see her again - hopefully not quite as close up.

'Thank you' to the many people who provided information to the Diary about what was happening with the Lysblink Seaways.

Map from Bing maps.

To Sanna to See the Volcano

We were up early this morning to drive to Sanna in the hope of beating the crowds who were bound to be flocking there to get a view of the spectacular volcanic eruption on Rum - to find only one other vehicle in the car park and the place as sleepy as it usually is early on a Sunday morning.  We're beginning to wonder about the reports we've received about this volcano - there's been nothing on the news or the internet.

When we reached a vantage point, we couldn't see much of Rum through the rain and low cloud, but there was certainly no sign of anything exciting happening.  What's more, the whole of the north coast of Ardnamurchan was still there despite the predictions of a tsunami.

We think the people who sent us the photos, and that vulcanologist, must have got it all wrong - either that, or the 32mm of rain we've had in the last 36 hours has put the eruption out.  The Diary's suspicions were reflected in the label 'rumour' at the bottom of each post, so those of you who have been phoning friends and family here to make sure they're all right can probably relax.

If there was no volcanic eruption to get excited about, there was something else - one of the finest displays of wild orchids we've seen at Sanna.  The best are along the track that runs from the car park to Sanna Beagh.  Many are a rich purple, but they vary....

....to shades of pink.  It's very difficult to work out what species they are, partly because, this morning, they were very bedraggled and, if they are the fragrant variety, they weren't smelling of anything. Part of the problem in identification is that fragrant orchids are supposed to have plain-coloured leaves, but some of these had leaves which had the distinctive blotchy spots of the common marsh or northern varieties.

The lack of scent and the variability in the leaves may mean that they're northern marsh orchids.  In many ways the exact species really doesn't matter - they're beautiful, and there are lots of them.  Which is true in general across the peninsula - it may be that the miserably wet winter has suited the orchids, as they're in flower all over the hill land at the moment.

We went on to walk along the beach, where we spotted this little ringed plover as well a great northern diver which, as usual, moved further out as soon as it saw us.  But the highlight of the day's birdwatching was seeing a female hen harrier working her way across the croft lands: it's the first time we've seen one at Sanna.

Rum Eruption Continues

Meanwhile, the Rum volcano to the north of Ardnamurchan continues to erupt with increasing violence - picture taken from Fascadale.

Many thanks to Keith Charles for the picture.

Rum Volcanoes Erupt

After nearly 60 million years of lying dormant, the volcanoes on Rum erupted yesterday.  Vulcanologist Kenneth Cameron, who recorded the event from Sanna, said, "These are typical of early-stage Plinian-type eruptions.  If they run true to type, further and larger eruptions will follow during the next few days."

The volcano on Ardnamurchan last erupted at about the same time as that on Rum, when Greenland was moving away from Europe.  When asked whether we should be concerned at events on Rum, Kenneth said, "I would put the chances of an eruption following on Ardnamurchan at about 50-50.  Of far more concern is that, if Rum blew its top completely, the north coast of Ardnamurchan would almost certainly be devastated by the resulting tsunami."

Many thanks to Kenneth for the photograph.

Amphibious Vehicle

Many thanks to Gael Cameron for sending this picture, which shows one of our local fishermen on his way to work yesterday morning.  This amphibious vehicle, a prototype of a local design, enables fishermen to save time on the early-morning commute from bed to creel.  However, oncoming motorists should be warned that it has no reverse gear.

A larger passenger version is in the planning stages.  It will, in one stroke, replace both the Shiel bus and the Corran ferry, offering a direct, non-stop daily service to Fort William.

Exotic Species

For readers who are concerned about the lack of news of Betsy, here is a happy picture taken a few days ago of Hughie feeding Betsy and Bobby one morning, and giving Betsy the sort of love and attention she deserves.  What the Diary didn't appreciate at the time was that he was also giving her some bad news.  The details aren't fully clear yet, but it seems that the ordinary pigs will shortly be pork scratchings.

The Diary's suspicions were aroused when it received this picture this morning which, if readers look very closely, features Hughie feeding a small herd of deer, including a white deer, on a farm in the Cairngorms that specialises in exotic species.  Apparently the two Hughie was looking at were reindeer and.... Iron Age pigs.  The suggestion is that these will replace the more boring and mundane saddlebacks and old spots as they attract better money.  Amongst other things, the Iron Age pigs are small and cute, so Hughie can sell tourists bags of food to feed them, earning him a profit and, at the same time, saving him money on pig feed.

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for photo.

Pig Industrialisation

When we arrived back from holiday one of the first things we did was to check on Betsy.  Poor girl, we found her all by herself in her run, very miserable, with Bobby off with some other ladies and the piglets, who weren't really ready to leave their mother, removed to Hughie's barn.  Of the ten piglets, four have now been sold.

So this morning I walked over to Kilchoan and, while Hughie wasn't looking, had a quick look around his barn.  It's a bit like Aladdin's cave, full of all sorts of things - old furniture, sacks of coal, farm machinery, chickens, last year's lambs, four tups, a cat who runs the place and keeps the mice down, a locked room which I suspect is a whisky distillery, and....

....the six remaining piglets.  Apparently, the reason Hughie had to bring them indoors was the weather.  They really weren't thriving, and two of them had developed prolapses.  They look fine now, and are fattening up quickly.

Meanwhile, there's a rumour that a new resident in Ormsaigbeg, who lives near the shop, is going in with Hughie on some sort of industrial-size pig facility, to be built on several floors in his back garden.  This all sounds a bit unlikely, except that yesterday the two of them were working on what looked liked footings.  It's bad enough having the tone lowered in Ormsaigbeg by fields full of free-range pigs which sometimes range well beyond their pens, but the idea of having heavy lorries bringing huge quantities of pig feed along the peninsula is appalling.  Worse still, there's been no planning permission, though sometimes farmers are exempt.  Trust the Diary to keep everyone informed.

Un-Royal Mail

In case anyone is as confused as the Diary, this is not a motorway maintenance van, it's your Royal Mail delivery van.  As part of the process of privatisation, they're changing the boring old pillarbox red to something a little more modern.

Rumour has it that they're also getting rid of the faded red on these too.  What about bracken green as an alternative?

Pig Rumours

The Diary wishes to emulate our politicians by hotly and vehemently denying the totally unfounded rumour that he has been feeding Hughie's pigs in Hughie's absence on business.  The Diary's position on pig rearing in Ormsaigbeg is a matter of historic and long-term record: this is a nice place, and pigs make for uneasy neighbours, so the Diary wouldn't be doing anything to encourage them.

That said, the Diary was down at Bobby and Betsy's run first thing this morning, where the two seem to be getting on much better since Scarlet went back to Kilchoan.  They can be seen in this photo contentedly feeding together, with none of the quarrelling and pushing and shoving that used to go on.

Meanwhile, in a neighbouring pig run, the three new pigs have been confirmed to be sows and, so rumour has it, all are in piglet.  This means that, with Betsy the same way, we have the potential for the pig population of Ormsaigbeg to skyrocket, with upwards of forty or even fifty piglets arriving within the next few months.

It has also been confirmed that the orange sow is a Tamworth, a breed famous for escaping.  Older readers will remember the story of the Tamworth Two who became so famous that they now have their own Wikipedia page, here.  This does not bode well for Ormsaigbeg residents' carefully-tended flower gardens.

The three new sows are also now known to have come from Portuairk.  It's beyond belief that the pigs have been moved here: there's acres of ground, and some nice gardens in Portuairk for them to root around in.

We also now know that their owner is Angus-John, a Portuairk crofter.  Rumour has it that the three pigs weren't too pleased at being moved to Ormsaigbeg so one of them, probably the ginger sow, bit off the end of his finger.  An alternative story is that Angie lost his finger-end to a manhole cover.  Whatever the truth, the Diary understands that the injury is both serious and annoying to a man who works hard for his living, and therefore wishes Angie a very speedy recovery.

Talking to Angie this morning, he mentioned that he saw lights in the sky to the north and west of Portuairk around 5.30 this morning.  Almost certainly these were the aurora borealis.  The plot at the AuroraWatch website has been going mad for the last couple of days, though this may be due to a technical fault.  Nevertheless, with fine weather forecast for next week, we need to be watching the northern skies.

BravePig

After Hughie finally managed to take away the eight piglets (post here), he moved the electric fence so it ran along the road, with the result that we now look straight across the road into the sow's run.  For a few days she was obviously very lonely, and seemed to spend most of her time in this top corner so she could amuse herself watching everything we were doing.

Her loneliness didn't last long, as visitors began to stop and talk to her.  Some even went and scratched her behind the ear.  Cars began to stop, and people climbed out to take photographs.  A reporter arrived and took photographs.  Her fame spread.  Traffic jams built up.  We were waiting an ice cream van to arrive and for the first coach with 'Scottish Pig-spotting Safaris' written on the side.

The sow was beginning to enjoy herself - and then everything changed when Hughie put the boar into the run.  He, as you can see, is an absolute beauty, and gives the poor sow no peace as he follows her everywhere until she collapses with exhaustion.

And then Hughie disappeared.  The story was that he had gone to Spain on holiday, but The Diary has its suspicions.   Was it pure co-incidence that, at exactly the same time,  Alex Salmond was in Los Angeles for the opening night of the new cartoon feature 'Brave', a follow-on from 'Braveheart'?  Was it really necessary for the First Minister to be in Hollywood for four - yes, FOUR - days just to see one film?  No.  He was in the capital of film-making to negotiate a sequel which will further promote Scotland's position as the world's Number One tourist attraction.  The film, according to rumour, is a mediaeval blood-and-guts adventure story to be called 'BravePig', and the stars are going to be... Hughie's pigs.

Roast Suckling Piglet

General rejoicing has broken out in Ormsaigbeg at the news that Hughie MacLachlan has been made "an offer he couldn't refuse" for eight of the piglets currently in a township field. The information, which came from a highly reliable source, said that they are to be roasted on a spit as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The other two are already sold.

The Diary is particularly pleased as the piglets, as well as spoiling the scenery, are making too much noise at night, fighting and squabbling over who is to be at the top and bottom of the untidy pile in which they sleep.

The piglet pictured is called Spot.

Trump Rumour Denied

Rumours that it was Donald Trump in the golf buggie that was towed out of an Ormsaigbeg field this afternoon have been denied by the Trump Organisation. "He's definitely not on the west coast of Scotland looking for an alternative site for his golf development," the spokesman said.