Tags
Ben Nevis, Caledonian MacBrayne, Corran ferry, Devil's toenails, Gleann Gael, grey seal, gryphea, Isle of Mull, Kingairloch, Loch Aline, Loch Linnhe, Loch Uisge, Lochaline, Lochaline Mine, Morvern, otter, pine marten, red deer, red-breasted merganser, sika deer, Sound of Mull, stonechat, whinchat
Tuesday, 13th September. Today, having passed through Fort William, we went down the eastern side of Loch Linnhe (pronounced ‘Linnie’) to its narrows, where we crossed the loch by the Corran ferry, enjoying the view of the lighthouse on the other side.
After the narrows the sea loch is much wider. We followed it southwards.
At one stop along the loch I was pleased to have my 2007 Open University geology revised. I had never realised that Ben Nevis was an extinct volcano.
We left the Linnhe at one point to visit a small lochan (that’s tautologous) with a very long name in Gallic.
Back beside the Linnhe, I was delighted to see a seal come in to cavort in the rocks and weed. It was some way away, and rather difficult to photograph, but these are my two best pictures.
Our packed lunch was taken at Kingairloch,
from where we made our way inland on the Morvern peninsula to Lochaline, on the Sound of Mull. We had on the way passed Loch Whisky and Gleann Gael. [Linguistic note!: I wrote ‘Whisky’ in my notebook, because that’s what I thought I was being was told, being assured that it was its real name, and that ‘whisky’ means ‘water’ in Gallic. I was being teased to a certain extent. On the map I find it is spelt ‘Loch Uisge’. And ‘uisge’ does indeed mean water, ‘uisge beatha’, the water of life, being the Gallic for ‘whisky’.]
We walked away from the Sound, and made our way a short distance along Loch Aline off it, past a fascinating sand mine and its works.
There was some waste sand lying around. On picking it up we could see and feel just how very white, fine and soft it was, quite unlike any I had encountered on a beach.
I would love to have had a visit round the works, not to mention the mine itself!
We walked on.
I then got absorbed into the next activity and totally forgot to take any photos of it. There were literally hundreds of ‘devil’s toenails’ on the beach. David collected several. Devil’s toenails are fossils of bivalves, gryphea, about two inches, 5 centimetres, long. And here’s a (copyright-free) picture of one found on the internet..
Time to go home the way we came.
This evening a pine marten visited even before our meal, so it was possible to get some semi-daylight pictures through the glass.
Musiewild's blog 
Great pictures, I loved the shots of the pine marten. All those beautiful photographs of different waters were most enjoyable too.
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It was always fun seeing those pine martens.
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Super pictures, Venetia.
Back in the late 1960s, when Sue and I were both teaching, we nearly bought those lighthouse cottages (for a song!). We went by train all the way from London to see them, up-and down in 24 hours. Sue told her mother (who lived in Perth). She had stayed in them for a few nights before WW2 and said they were very damp. Apparently, the mortar holding them together had been made using sand from the beach- unwashed so full of salt. Not a good idea. But what a thrill it would have been to own that view, let alone the cottages!
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Wow, Rob. What fun it would have been to enjoy those cottages, and the views, not to mention the rest of the region. But you were wise not to go ahead!
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Love the ‘uisce’ story – in Irish Gaelic spelling it’s ‘c’ not ‘g’ – and does indeed mean water. Similarly ‘abhann’ means ‘river’ in Gaelic – so you have lots of River Avon-s – meaning River River! (The ‘h’ in abhann makes it a ‘v’ – blame Anglicised spelling – the ‘b’ should have a dot on it) Wonderful scenery and great to know the pine marten is thriving.
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I’ve just looked up the Cornish for whisky – cf our correspondence on one of my posts in June – and it’s ‘hwiski’! Let’s see if my adoptive Breton reader has anything to add!
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‘Water’ on the other hand in Cornish is ‘dowr’.
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Oooh – that’s very foreign!
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It is lovely to see a pine marten. The Corran Ferry was a great favourite of ours because in our day it had a sign saying “This is not the Ballachulish Ferry”.
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It still wasn’t, though I noticed no such sign.
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There is no Ballachulish Ferry any more.
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Enjoyed the variety of scenic pictures. Well done managing to capture the seal, though it was doing its best to disguise itself.
Thanks for the explanation about ‘uisge’!
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Yes, at times it was difficult with the naked eye to distinguish between seal, weed, and weed-covered rocks.
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Je ne suis spécialiste ni en whisky, ni en langue bretonne, mais en breton, ça se dit apparemment tout simplement wiski. Ça sent son importation ! L’eau, c’est dour et rivière, ster, aven ou loc’h (qui n’est pas un loch écossais, mais se prononce de la même façon). Il y aurait toute une étude à faire sur les différences/similitudes des langues celtes…
Fantastique lumière sur le phare et les lochs.
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So, on this very small sample, it would appear that Cornish and Breton are closer to each other than to Gallic and Gaelic.
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All that discussion about whisky…………have you been tempted to sample some ?? x
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Not my thing! The Lodge was unlicensed, and we just each took in a bottle of wine. Mine lasted the week – my fellow guest’s did not!
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