2014 Kilchoan Pram Race

From Richard O'Connor:

As the weather is so poor, now is the ideal opportunity to spend an hour in the shed or the living room creating your pram!!

Yes folks, I'm talking about the event of the year, the 2014 Kilchoan Pram Race scheduled for 25th July.  We are hoping for a bumper turnout this year in both senior and weenie categories, so now is the time to start your entry project. If any of you non-combatants have any bits and pieces of old prams, bikes, golf trollies you don't want please let us know @ 510240 or 510281 and we will pick them up and leave them at Shore Cottage for anybody to help themselves.

A copy of the new rules will be posted on the blog soon.  There will be two age groups (a) Seniors, who will race from the Hotel to the Shop and back, and (b) Weenies, aged 10 and under, who will race from the Church car park to the Hotel.  Fancy dress is compulsory.  It would be great to have some entries from down the Peninsula as well as locals, but regardless of where you are from it will be great to have you.  Get building folks!

The Top of the Ben

We hadn't intended to climb to the top of Ben Hiant yesterday, and were even more wary after the sudden snowstorm had caught us on its southern flank.  At such times, we do think carefully about our safety, not so much for ourselves as for the trouble we would put any rescuers to if we did have a fall.

That said, once we'd climbed the gully and found ourselves on the track that follows the ridge to the summit, with the sky clear and the going underfoot, while slippery, not dangerous, we made the decision to start the last section.

As we climbed, pausing more than once to decide whether it was safe to continue, we looked northwards across Beinn an Leathaid towards the snow-capped mountains of Rum and the darker profile of Eigg.

Up to this point the patches of older snow had been pristine but, as we approached the summit, it was clear that a man and his small dog had been there recently.  Tramping up through the snow, we felt a bit like Scott, beaten to the south pole by Amundsen and his dogs.

 This picture of the ben's summit, with its trig point and a large cairn of stones, looks up Loch Sunart, and gives some idea of how fierce the winds have been up here.

This one looks in the opposite direction, westwards towards the end of the peninsula, with the village of Kilchoan in the middle distance.  The highest peak is Beinn na Seilg.

Ben Hiant, like  most of our higher points, has a small pool of water by its summit.  It would be a challenge for someone in the summer to see how many summits they could visit in one day, and take a bath at the top of each.

There is something truly magical about standing at the top of a high hill or mountain and enjoying the views.  Somehow it takes one away from the day-to-day, it refreshes.  And, of course, there's that sense of achievement at making it to the top, a sense heightened as one gets older and wonders for how much longer we'll be able to do this, particularly when faced with a snowy, slippery path down.

Graffiti Found in MIngary Castle Chapel

Archaeologists believe that these marks were cut into the 13th-century plaster of the castle chapel, built into the original north curtain wall of the castle - full story here.

When the chapel was later severely damaged by cannon fire, it was hurriedly filled in by the defenders using, amongst other things, this piece of cannon ball, found by Ricky Clark.

The Front of the Ben

This is something we have almost forgotten.  This morning's wasn't strictly a sunrise, as the sun rose above a mass of cloud rather than the horizon, but it was promising enough to have us out of the house and into the hills as quickly as possible.

We left the car at the turn to the new wind turbine at Beinn Bhuidhe just short of Camas nan Geall, with the intention of walking diagonally up the southeastern flank of Ben Hiant.

It was great to be out in weather that promised well for the day, with blue sky above us and the sun warm on our cheeks; and this was great walking, a steady climb up a hillside which, despite all the recent rain, wasn't too soft underfoot.

Within minutes we had spotted red deer, a small group of half-a dozen hinds who were in no great hurry to be away from us.

The next, a young stag, had tucked himself into the steep little glen cut by a burn into the face of the hillside.  He was too confident of the safety of his hiding place, so when he saw us so close he had a fright.

We then had a salutary lesson in how quickly the weather can change here.  Within minutes of watching the young stag bound away up the hill we were in a blizzard, big flakes which seemed to blow first from one direction then the other.  The snow clouds had crept up on us from behind the bulk of the ben.

We continued to see deer, a much larger group of hinds, then these two young stags.

The snow lasted for about a quarter of an hour and then it stopped, the clouds moving away across Morvern.  By this time we were high on the southern flank of Ben Hiant, looking down into the secluded basin of land formed between the ben and the lumpy hill called Stellachan Dubha.  Beyond lay the Sound of Mull with, to the right, Bloody Bay and, to the left, Tobermory Bay.

By this time we were up into patches of snow which have lain there for about a week.  A small gully and the blue sky above it tempted us to climb onto the ridge, and suddenly we were within easy striking distance of the summit of Ben Hiant.

Meall Sanna

The wander along the beach at Sanna yesterday was lovely, but too easy, too unenergetic - so we decided to climb Meall Sanna, 176m.  The hill is part of a lumpy ridge which runs along the east side of the township, hemming it against the sea.  From whichever way you tackle it, it's a steep ascent - but then steep ascents are good because, every time you stop to draw breath, the view has changed.  This first picture was taken from about half way up and looks northeast across Lower Sanna to the islands of Muck and Rum....

....while this one looks more directly north, across Upper Sanna to the distinctive outline of Eigg.  By this time our car was no longer alone in the car park.

Taken while drawing breath again a little further up, this picture looks down on the flooding of the machair, with M.E.M. Donaldson's house at Sanna Beagh at left, and Portuairk across the bay.  Beyond the hill to the right of and behind Portuairk one of the CalMac ferries can be seen, with low-lying Coll beyond it.

A direct approach to the summit from the west side requires some rock climbing, so the last stage was achieved by skirting around the south side of the peak, and approaching it from the east.  From here, we looked into the great bowl of land formed by the Ardnamurchan volcano's ring dykes.  The hill in the middle distance is Beinn na h-Imeilte, and to its left the Sound of Mull and Mull itself can just be seen.

Meall Sanna is not to be outdone by other peaks in providing weary climbers with the opportunity for a drink once the summit is reached.  By this time the wind was fairly brisk, as can be seen from the water's ruffled surface.

For connoisseurs of Ardnamurchan's many cairns, the one at the top of Meall Sanna might be unkindly dismissed as a 'tourist's cairn', a jumble of rocks thrown down to commemorate another peak achieved.  This didn't prevent us adding to it, even though it isn't even at the summit.

We descended by the eastern face, with views across to Achnaha and the winding road that joins it to Sanna.  On the hills on the other side of the ring dykes the snow hadn't quite melted.

Half way down I slipped and fell, fortunately ending up on my rump with nothing damaged but my self-esteem.  It was a good, sharp reminder of the constant need to take care.