Waving at the Waverly

 



Many thanks to The Raptor for allowing the Diary to share this photo of the Waverly cruising along the coast of Mull on Friday evening, en route to Oban from Portree, Skye. 

A Killer Joins Us for Lunch

We were minding our own business enjoying lunch in the sunshine on the terrace when we were joined by a killer. This spider doesn't spin a web to catch its prey but goes hunting for it, although it does use a silken thread as a sort of safety rope when it has to leap on its prey. It's one of the jumping spiders, the zebra spider Salticus scenicus.

Fortunately it's tiny, less than a centimetre long, otherwise, instead of eating lunch, we might have been lunch.

Lochan Sron nan Sionnach

There are few greater pleasures than waking up to a clear sky and knowing that there's nothing to stop us spending the day wandering in the hills of western Ardnamurchan - and it doesn't matter that we've been doing this for something over twenty years because, even though we might start on a walk which we've 'done before', we soon find ourselves in places which are quite new to us.

A good starting place is the track that runs up from the Sanna road to the Kilchoan water works. This picture looks back down the course of the burn that provides most of our water, the Abhainn Chro Bheinn, to heights of Beinn na Seilg.

From the water works we turned north into the hills, climbing steadily until the views began to unfold below us. This picture, taken from the summit of a hill un-named on the OS map, looks almost due west across the Sanna road, then the first lochan, Lochan nan Ealachan, then Lochan na Crannaig, beyond which is the Portuairk road, Lochan an Aodainn, Loch Grigadale and, just about visible in the distance to the right, Ardnamurchan Point lighthouse.

From the next height - again un-named - we looked south across the various installations of the water works to Kilchoan Bay, with some of the houses of Ormsaigmore to the right, Kilchoan to the left, and Mull in the distance. Almost all the land in the fore- and middle ground is part of Kilchoan township's common grazings.

From this hill we also looked down onto Lochan Sron nan Sionnach. Sron means a nose or a point and can be used for a hill which projects into the sea, such as Sron Bheag at the southwest end of Ormsaigbeg, while sionnach is a fox, so this is the lochan of the point of the fox. It seems likely, then, that one of the four un-named hills which surround the lochan is Sron nan Sionnach - but which?

The more distant hills in this picture, from left to right, are Beinn Bhuidhe above Portuairk, Beinn na h-Imeilte, and the peaks from Beinn Dubh to Meall Sanna.

We circled round until we once more stood looking back down into the wide glen formed by the upper course of the Abhainn Chro Bheinn, a burn which wends it way downstream a series of textbook meanders. After sitting on a rock for some time we....

....dropped down to the burn and found another rock to sit on, this time overlooking a pool and a waterfall. There we drank some coffee and watched the water flow.

More Stone Walls

I struggle at times to comprehend the gut-busting hard work that was put in to building the many stone walls which cross western Ardnamurchan, and feel that, in trying to understand a little about them, I am paying some small tribute to those who spent so many, many hours building them.

Some walls keep their secrets, like this one, which runs down to the north coast a little to the east of Plocaig. But others are a little more easy to date, if not understand.

This wall runs roughly parallel to the south coast from Mingary Castle eastwards to the lower slopes of Ben Hiant. It's seen here where it crosses the Allt Choire Mhuilinn which runs from right to left in the glen in the middle distance.

It's later than 1806, the date when William Bald drew his beautiful maps of the Ardnamurchan Estate - this map courtesy the Estate. Had it been there, it would have run from just north of the castle and across to the north of the clachan of Choiremhuilinn or Corivouline, as Bald spelt it.

Sadly, it's likely that the wall was built using the stones from the buildings of the clachan of Choiremhuilinn, which was sited in the hollow towards the centre of this picture.

What isn't at all clear is why the wall was built at such cost of labour. The land between it and the sea is fairly good but not exceptional and, as can be seen from the strand of wire that has been added, it's not high enough to contain determined red deer.

SM-11: Caisteal Dubh nan Cliar

Caisteal Dubh nan Cliar, the Black Castle of the Minstrels, stands on the Ormsaigbeg shore below Iain Cameron's croft. The coastline there is a low cliff broken by cuts down which small burns flow, places of wildflowers in summer. The 'castle' is sited beside one of these little glens, built against the western side of a natural rock outcrop which forms a small, steep-sided knoll, its flanks covered with rubble that has fallen from the structure. Historic Environment Scotland's Canmore site - here - says, "its original form is uncertain, but it probably comprised a small two-storeyed tower of irregular plan measuring about 5.5m from NW to SE by 4.6m transversely."

This picture looks at it from the west, the side on which most of the stone walling was built. The purpose of the upper section of wall isn't clear, unless it was to level off a platform on the top of the knoll. The lower wall to the left goes round onto the north side, and encloses....

....a low-roofed chamber. Its roof, much of it fallen, was formed of long, lintel stones or slabs, and its outer walls are still mortared in places. The Canmore site says, "This chamber measures about 3.1m by 2.2m and the roof, which comprises slab-lintels supported on corbel-courses, rises to a height of about 1.8m." It continues, "In the SE wall there are the remains of a rebated entrance-doorway, which appears to have been secured by a draw-bar." This isn't there any more, having collapsed, though part of a mortared wall lies on its side.

This is a view of the inside of the chamber, showing both the quality of the stonework and some of the mortar.

The Canmore site continues, "All the masonry is of random rubble bound together by coarse lime-mortar. The age of this building is uncertain, but it may tentatively be ascribed to the 16th or 17th century. It seems too small to have been a permanent residence, and it is possible that it served as an outpost of Mingary Castle, securing the anchorage is Kilchoan Bay. In 1838 (New Statistical Account [NSA] 1845) it was described as 'the remains of a very small tower, dignified by the name of "Castial due nan Clior", the black Castle of the Minstrels."

For several reasons, it seems an unlikely fortification. No more than two or three soldiers could have occupied it, and even they would have found life very cramped. Further, it is hardly in a good defensive position. It's at the back of the beach, the cliff top to its immediate west directly overlooks it and, even from its summit, it doesn't have much of a view. There are far better sites, at superior elevation and with sounder natural defences, within a short distance - for example, the cliff top at Maol Buidhe, at the SW end of Ormsaigbeg, which offers magnificent views across the Sound and as far west as Tiree.

MEM Donaldson had a much better suggestion. She wrote that the ‘caisteal’ might have been the "abode of some 'minstrel' of solitary habit" who, in celebration of his skills, called his place a 'castle'. Whatever it is, it’s worth a visit, not least so you can form your own opinion.