Archaeology Course

On Saturday, the Kilchoan Learning Centre hosted a second course run by Archaeology Scotland's Adopt a Monument scheme's Phil Richardson and Cara Jones.  The morning was spent outlining plans for work that could be done at Camas nan Geall, though everything we do there will be tightly controlled by Historic Scotland.  We then looked at photos of some of the 70+ sites on West Ardnamurchan which the Ardnamurchan Community Archaeology group have so far described, with course leaders Phil and Cara helping us to understand what we have found.

This was followed, in the afternoon, by visits to two of the sites.  Top picture shows the group standing in a 9m diameter stone circle near the Caim sheds.  This was identified as a hut circle, the stones forming the low walls of a conical hut, probably of either late bronze or iron age - so it's some 3,000 years old.

The group then moved to an area of half a dozen small stone structures which were probably the small, temporary huts of a pre-clearance shieling - that is, a summer camp to which a village's animals were moved while crops were grown in the inbye land.

One of the things that seemed to be conspicuously missing was a water supply, until a well was found in this marshy area when one of the group nearly fell into it.  The well is a metre in diameter and about 75cm deep, with a gravel bottom.

As we returned to the cars we witnessed one of the largest traffic jams of recent times.  As well as our cars, there were the six minibuses of the Glasgow University geology field trip which comes here every year, and two slightly puzzled cyclists.

Many thanks to Phil and Cara for an excellent course, and to Pat Glenday at the Kilchoan Learning Centre for the usual excellent arrangements.

A Serpent Surprise

Many thanks to Rachael for this picture, taken from just west of Glenborrodale looking up Loch Sunart with the island of Risga in the middle.  This was taken yesterday evening, when the skies had cleared.

The weather has shown a distinct improvement, with some sunshine again this morning, but the first adder of the season is a surprise.

These pictures were taken by Kilchoan Early Bird - for which many thanks.

Yo-yo Weather

The last couple of days have seen a welcome change in the weather.  We've broken out of the long run of westerlies, which brought us nothing but grey skies and rain, into a more turbulent airstream, with huge cumulonimbus clouds looming across bright blue skies - this was the view from our house yesterday afternoon.

By first thing this morning we were back into hail and snow showers, with the snow line much lower on the hills opposite us on Morvern, but by....

....half past ten, when Ricky Clark and I arrived at Sanna, the sun was smiling from a brilliant blue sky.  Picture here shows the fish farm well boat Robris off Sanna.

We were there to take a look at what Ricky suspected might be a shell midden, the rubbish-dump of possibly mesolithic hunter-gatherers which typically includes charcoal from their fire, and the shells and fish remains they were cooking.  There's good evidence this was a midden, albeit a small one, with the remains of a cooking fire, but while we were studying it and taking pictures, it hailed.

The Italian Feast

Some seventy guests sat down to the Paul and Pablette's Traditional Italian Night at the Kilchoan Hotel last night, and they got what they were promised on the menu - a "celebration beyond compare" of Italian food.

Picture shows the antipasti selection which included a piedmontese speciality vitelli tonnato, bruschetta, roasted sundried tomatoes, mozzarella on tomato, roasted artichoke hearts, olives and caper berries.  The main course offered a selection of pizzas, five pasta dishes including our favourite, a salmon and spinach ricotta tortellini, and Paul's speciality, a superb seafood risotto served by him on scallop shells.

There were some at our table who struggled to face the cheese and sweet courses.  The dishes in the neat little containers included tiramisu and panna cotta, but the highlight of the sweets was....

....a chocolate fountain.

The food was great, but it was made all the more special by the pride with which Paul, Pablette, Sarah and their staff presented it.  We thought it was a first class meal but, to test its true quality, I asked two Italian residents of Kilchoan what they thought, and their verdict was a huge smile and "Buono!"

Many thanks to Ben McKeown for the pictures.

Spring Birds

Winter may still be with us, but the small birds which have been around since the autumn - and they've had a pretty torrid time of it - are suddenly appearing in their full mating finery.  We have half-a-dozen resident yellowhammers who have been very tolerant of each, but now the males are chasing each other away from the bird food.

When a recent visitor saw one of these magnificent cock yellowhammers, he exclaimed - "It's a budgerigar!"

The chaffinches have, as usual, survived winter better than any other species.  They're pushy, inquisitive, very tolerant of each other, social, and greedy.  They're a pest, but I can't help liking them - particularly now that, having come through the winter, they too are turning out in their very best finery.

We were woken yesterday morning by a fluttering outside the bedroom window - to see a pied wagtail sitting on the roof of the conservatory.  The first of the wagtail returnees were back with us a few weeks ago, but now there are many more of them.  They're a little ungainly in the blustery winds we're having, which catch them under the tail-feathers and bowl them over.

Having been very sadly siskin-less all winter, we saw the first one last Sunday, but he's back again, looking even smarter, and gorging himself on peanuts - and he's been joined by a female.

As with the siskins, we've hardly seen a greenfinch since least summer, so it was very good to see this one on the feeders yesterday morning.  I think it's a female - the lighter yellow-green stripe on the wing is narrower on females than males.  Whatever the sex, they always look very fierce - and they are, chasing all the other birds away when they arrive for a meal.