What is to
follow over the next few blogs, I haven’t decided quite how many (at least 6),
is a tale of the wanderings of two Geordie ‘boys’ as they discover the
wildlife, culture, history and sheer beauty of the Outer Western Isles of
Scotland. Also included will be accounts
of meetings with some wonderfully friendly and interesting people along the
way. I had thought about ‘Islands in the
Sun’ as a title as we were blessed with sunshine and high temperatures
throughout, but choose the title used as it seemed more appropriate. I hope you will read on, stay with it and enjoy.
24th
May. As I waited for Sam to pick me up
it was so cold that I put the heating on!
We were soon loaded up and heading for the border and thankfully before
reaching Carlisle we were in sunshine and heat and beginning to count Common Buzzards, good weather and
buzzards would rarely leave us throughout our trip. After negotiating the Glasgow motorway, we
stopped off at Dumbarton to visit the 1,500 year old castle built on the core
of a 300 million year old extinct volcano, and stretch our legs. I hadn’t realised just how much stretching
would be required, as to reach the top includes the negotiating of 557
steps. The climb was worth it for the
views over the Rivers Clyde and Leven and the castle itself is very
interesting. Robert the Bruce died close
by. Birds seen included our first Arctic and Sandwich Terns and Oystercatchers
of the trip.
King of the castle, Dumbarton
Our next
stop short stop was taken at Loch Lomond for photos and we heard Cuckoo and on leaving saw a Cuckoo fly across the road towards the
loch. Loch Lomond is an attractive area,
but not nearly so beautiful as Loch Awe where we took a longer stop prior to
reaching our hotel. More photographs
were take here whilst we listened at length to Wood Warbler, more Cuckoos,
Siskin, and Willow Warbler, and rather more briefly to Pied Flycatcher, all singing from old and attractive woodland. By now of course Hooded Crows were common.
After a little more driving we checked into our Hotel at Connel for the
night, a few miles from Oban where we were to catch our ferry to the island of
Barra the following day.
Loch Lomond
Loch Awe
During the
evening we spent some time at Airds Bay which on passing earlier looked good
for Otter and sure enough we found Otter
whilst admiring a view of the Connel cantilever bridge which I remembered standing
on many years ago. Common Seal was also seen, and birds included Grey Heron, gulls, terns, Grey
Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser and Song
Thrush. A cup of tea was enjoyed all
the more, the water having been boiled on Sam’s Swedish Trangia Army Stove. We had begun our trip wonderfully and I had
forgotten the cold morning air of Northeast England as the sun lowered in a
clear sky.
Connel cantilever Bridge
25th
May. It was a glorious morning and we
had time to visit Dunstaffnage Castle which stands at the lip of Loch
Etive. Built around 1220 it was a
stronghold of the MacDougalls and played a part in the struggle with Norway for
control of the Hebrides. When we walked
to the ruined chapel in the woodland Sam found a Mole on the surface of the ground and we watched it working
undercover of grass and leaves for some time.
Swift, Sand Martin, Swallow and House Martin were seen today, although they were few and far
between from now on. I remember a Bugle
plant close by. It was a relaxing
morning prior to catching our ferry which would take us to Castlebay, Barra in
just under 5 hours. We were met at the
ferry by an unhelpful and rude worker, but I allowed for the fact that he was
carrying a very large chip on his shoulder which must have been tiring him and
I guessed he hadn’t had his customer service training yet. I’m pleased to say from now on we met with
only politeness, kindness and humour throughout the trip.
Dunstaffnage Castle
Bugle
On our way.
We spent
most of the time on the ferry on the outside deck in the sun and at times cool
wind and this paid off when Sam spotted a pod of at least 6 Common Dolphins following the
boat. Sam had everyone on the outside
deck up out of their seats excitedly watching as he passed out information. By now I needed to go inside and fetch my
coat. Common Seals were also seen.
Good sightings of birds were had including Fulmer, Manx Shearwater, Gannet, Shag, Kittiwake and other gulls, Sandwich
Tern, Arctic Tern, Guillemot and Razorbill. The five hours passed by very quickly during
which we amused ourselves with spotting lookalikes for Gordon Sumner alias
Sting and Jurgen Klopp. We had a nice
sailing on calm seas and once off the boat at Castlebay we made off to check
into our hotel on the shore of the Atlantic and next to a wonderful little
beach. We certainly had a ‘room with a
view’ and we received a warm welcome from the owners and the Oystercatchers.
Hotel and Bay
A bit of a
wind had risen by evening during which we explored the island, in fact doing a
full circle of it. One of our first
sightings was a pair of stunning Red
Throated Divers on a small loch and we later had a great sighting of a
female Merlin. Numbers of Corncrake were heard each time we left the car and we found a very
nice reedbed area where we found Sedge
Warbler, Willow Warbler , Stonechat,
finches and Reed Bunting and off
course the now familiar call of Corncrake. Other birds seen included Greylag Geese, Eider, Common Buzzard, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Curlew,
terns, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Meadow
Pipit, Wren, Dunnock and Hooded Crow. Given more time we would no doubt have
unearthed much more. We took time to
visit the island’s airport where the runway is simply on a beautiful stretch of
sandy beach, and we enjoyed the views.
Sam at the airport!
We watched
the sunsetting once again in a clear blue sky and where the North Atlantic
meets the sky at the horizon. We
pondered over the fact that there was nothing between us and North America but the Atlantic Ocean. We went to bed thinking of our planned boat
trip to the island of Mingulay tomorrow.
We had arrived, and it felt wonderful.
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