Oban and environs

3^rd June

We drove to Oban, we weren’t sure where we would stay but decided it was time to stay with power to recharge everyone’s batteries. We filled up with fuel  as the orange light had been showing for a while (again), and there hadn’t been any fuel stations for miles. We also filled up with groceries from Tesco’s and then found a campsite on line. We followed our map, and then the brown caravan/camper signs around the coast from Oban a few miles south west. I just started to tell you about the campsite but then I had the feeling I had already written this. I wrote on that first morning didn’t I? Well it’s a few days ago now, I remember, cold, grey, drizzly, depressing.  We went into town and had a coffee at a little café, actually two, tried to watch the action at the harbour, saw a few ferries and heard the toot toot of the fog horns as they came and went, but they were barely visible through the gloom. After our very leisurely coffee we took Hilary to the swimming pool. She wasn’t keen on the museum of War and Peace (though I think we will go before we leave Oban.)Oban was a flying boat base during WWII and has quite a large naval history both long gone and the more recent past. While Hilary had a long and enjoyable warm swim and played with some other kids Di did some computer work (as a spectator at the pool) and I went for a walk in the rain. I walked up to McCaig’s Tower which is a Victorian replica of a Roman Colloseum built by McCaig who wanted a lastly memorial of himself, but also wanted to provide employment for the locals in hard times. It’s quite a good monument to the man, sits way upon the hill, is visible from town and the sea, and has great views from it down over the town and harbour (on a good day). The other good thing is it sits just above the Oban Distillery and so on this day, wafting through the cold, vapours from the distillery merging with low cloud, came the delicious sugary alcoholly whisky aroma of a good malt ( a bit like coffee on a cold day, or bacon any time!!!).

 We drove back in the continuing gloom to our campsite and battened down for the night.

The next morning (2^nd) we had a busier day planned, it was all weather activities pretty much, which was just as well, as it was still so foggy and cold you could barely see off the campsite, let alone over the sea. We headed up slightly  north but mostly east towards Ben  Crunachan a hydro power station which is actually very like Manapouri  in Fiordland which we have also toured. Before we got there though we stopped at Dunstaffne Castle, which is now a ruin in Scottish Heritage hands. We didn’t spend a lot of time here, pretty setting, but not unlike other ruins we have visited. There was a good exhibition though which gave a good history of the people who lived there and a bit about the area.

At Ben Crunachan we firstly watched a video of the building and working of the power station, and then a number of static displays about electricity and specifically this power station. The difference between  this station and many is that it is “reversible” and also only comes online at peak demand periods. What they have done is build a huge dam way up on Ben Crunachan and then put 2 pipes each 5m in diameter running down through the mountain at a 55 degree angle. These pipes split to become 4, so that four generators can be worked.  The plant can produce electricity 28 seconds after “getting the call” when the national grid needs more due to peak demand (especially at halftime in big football matches apparently), otherwise the plant is on standby.  At night time when the demand for electricity is very low, and therefore very cheap, they put the generators (or is it turbines) on reverse and pump the water back up to the reservoir at the top, so they can reuse all the water which had landed in the Loch (Awe) after its first run through the turbines.  

Loch Awe with outlet from power station

After the tour underground we went back towards Oban and stopped at a salmon smoking and salmon farm business. We didn’t do the tour but had lunch in the car park, Hilary played at the play-area, and fed the salmon with smelly fish food, and Di went into the shop and bought herself some salmon paté.  We stopped at a place called Connell Falls, we didn’t time it right so only saw turbulent water, but it is a place where the loch meets an estuary I think, and about 4 hours before high tide there is some amazing waterfall effect (apparently), we missed it, but it was still a beautiful spot and by this time the sky was lightening and we had a vague hope that one day the cloud may lift sufficiently to let us see the sun!!!  In fact on the distant hills I felt/thought there may have been a little sunlight!!!!!!

                                          The campsite in the sun

Amazingly by the time we got back to our campsite the sun was shining. It gave the outlook a completely different feel, the sea was sparkling, all the campers were outside in deck chairs, drinking wine, it was like a fiesta!!!  We even had a walk after dinner up onto the hills behind the campsite, and looked at the views while basking in sunlight. 



The sun didn’t set until after 1030, and it was still light until after 11. I even saw stars last night!!!!  I don’t know what time the sun came up, but I was awake by 5.30 and it was as bright as, as if the sun had been up for hours, and the sun was up!!!!!!! All day!!!!!!

Today we went early to the ferry terminal to organise some excursions .  We had a couple of tours we wanted to do, we toyed with taking the campervan across to Mull and staying a few nights, but the cost of the van on the ferry, and the very narrow roads on the island deterred us, and made us decide on a couple of day trips instead. Pretty expensive (nearly £200 for the two days) but, if you are going to come all this way, and want to experience what is here, you need to get out and see it is my philosophy.

We couldn’t do one of the tours today as there was a back-log as so many trips had been cancelled earlier in the week due to inclement weather, but we will do that tomorrow instead.

Today we caught the ferry from Oban to Mull (Craignure) and from there caught a bus to Duart Castle. We have done castles, Di enjoyed this one, but to me and Hilary it was a case of “just another pile of old rocks".

We had made a packed lunch so we sat on the rocks underneath the castle eating our sandwiches and fruit when there came a ripple on the water. As the object making the ripple got closer I couldn’t help thinking it looked very like our Kipper dog, nose out of the water, carrying a stick back to shore. It wasn’t Kipper though (thankfully, that would have been a helluva swim!!) it was in fact an otter with a huge fish in its mouth. It swam right in to a rock island a few yards off shore, about 30-40 metres from us I guess, and rested there for a wee bit before grabbing its fish and heading back into the water and around the headland, we presume to its “halt?” to feed its family. We were surprised at how bug this otter was compared to the ones we have seen at Orana Park, it was more small seal sized.  I tell you it was an enthralling experience for the three of us though, and a young woman touting a large camera who was also nearby and saw it all told us she had been waiting all week for a sighting and this was it!! We were thrilled.

We caught the bus back to Craignure and then on to

Tobermoray where we spent a few hours basking in sunshine, drinking coffee, browsing in shops, taking photos and enjoying the scenery. A pretty little seaside village with brightly coloured shop fronts. We saw a peregrine eagle which is also a rare sight apparently, it was hanging out on the church bell-tower (hassling and possibly stealing pigeon chicks) before it soared of on the thermals and did a few moves for us before disappearing around the coast some more.

 While Hilary played on the beach, digging in the sand and having a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable “down time” experience Di wandered, and I lay on the beach watching up at all sorts of very high flying large birds. I’m not sure if I saw any “White Tailed eagles” the females of whom can have a wingspan of 2.5metres, but I did see some large birds of prey high against the blue sky and couldn’t work out just how big they were or their exact colouring. My observations weren’t helped by the fact that as the warmth of the sun soaked into my poor body and my shoe and sockless feet got to breathe fresh air and see the light of day for the first time in weeks, I fell into a deep slumber. I was woken by Di saying we needed to get to the bus to catch the ferry back, I had been so out to it that for a few moments I had no idea where I was or what day it was, the sleep of the warm and contented.

We caught the ferry back, picked up the van and returned to the campsite.  We had fresh home done fish and chips (well Di and I had fresh fish and mashed potato and vegetables, Hilary had chips instead of mashed potato.

Tomorrow will be another big day on various boats as we are going out wildlife spotting on some of the outer isles. I’ll post this when I can but the internet is too slow at the moment so I can’t get my photos online.

Kilmartin to Oban

The road to Oban

I’m having problems with getting time to do my blog, (I’ve started stitching in the evenings instead of doing my homework) and internet access. We are now in Oban at a campsite high up overlooking the sea and an island (Can’t remember its name, I’ll tell you later, but I don’t want to get out of my warm bed to look at the map just now (Kerrera), and though the dongle works it is so slow that the server keeps rejecting my picture upload attempts. There is a café in town which has wifi so we’ll go there a bit later and try to do some internet work. It’s the sort of weather this morning which makes you want to go and sit in a warm café all day drinking hot coffee and chatting, and playing on the computer, certainly not boat tripping or other adventurous outside activities. There are some indoor activities like a museum of war and peace which we will probably go to, and also a leisure centre with hot pools and free wifi amongst other water activities. I think I’ll settle for the free wifi, the thought of submerging myself in a pool, even if warm, does not appeal in the slightest!!!, whilst looking out the window at the grey and wet day.

We continued our drive from Lochgilphead north to Kilmartin where we (well especially Hilary) were keen to visit the archaeological museum which she had found a brochure for. Kilmartin is above a glen which contains a large number of Neolithic monuments, mounds, sites, still in quite good repair from as long ago as 2000BC. In the glen itself are a line of burial chambers as well as standing stones and stone circles as well as castles and other remnants of the past. We arrived at about 4pm so headed straight to the museum which was open until 5.30. Hilary and Diana went in while I elected to wander outside looking around at the church, graveyard and over the glen from the hill, and then sitting in the sunshine doing some cross stitch. They came out at about 5 I guess, very enthusiastic, saying they needed more time as there was heaps to do, they had a ticket that gave them entrance again the next day as they had run out of time. We got back into the van and drove along various roads looking for a suitable spot to stay for the night. We settled in to an area about 50 metres from the road near a partially logged forest, made dinner,  did some relaxing (the sun was streaming into the van), and then prepared for bed as the sun went below a hill.  Di and I went to sleep to the sound of owls calling, very pleasant.

Views from our campervan from our settling spot.

It was fine overnight, when I woke at 3ish and looked out the sky was clear but very light, not like daytime at all, but not dark with sparkling stars by any means. The rain started about 5, we had become overly optimistic that the weather would be better, spoilt by our previous afternoon of sun and relative warmth. Thankfully by 9 when we had finished breakfast, and securing all the movable things in the van, the weather had cleared and we could do what we had planned.

We drove back the 3 miles or so to the Kilmartin Museum. We knew it didn’t open until 1000, so we had planned a walk around the glen looking at the monuments. The Kilmartin Glen was known as the “Valley of the Ghosts” because there were so many burial mounds within it.

Looking down on the glen

On our walk we saw four burial mounds or cairns and a field with standing stones which were arranged in a line and in another field, now surrounded by trees, two circles of standing stones, one virtually complete, the other with only a few stones still standing.

Of the four burial chambers two had accessible chambers, the first with a sliding lid covering it. It was built (modern) so the lid would slide closed if not held, I presume so that the stones inside and chamber would be protected if someone forgot to close it. It was reasonably heavy so I sat on top while Di and Hilary went in, holding the trap door open. I needn’t have bothered, there was a glass skylight (like the glass cubes you get in a shower) which let in plenty of light, and the trapdoor had a handle on the inside so they couldn’t have been trapped. I went in once Di was out (a smallish space). Inside were 5 or 6 steep steps leading to a small room, maybe 3x2½ metres, with a small rectangular pit about ½m deep and ½ m wide and 1m long. There was a stone slab with carvings of axe and spear heads and cups on it. It is thought that the more carvings on the slab, the more important the person in the tomb. There were also carvings on the walls of this chamber. The entire mound was about 2m high I guess, but originally they were 4.5m high. I know some of the sites had over the many centuries been raided for building materials, but I’m not absolutely certain if they went below ground level as well. I know that many people were buried in each, and that the chamber we were in would not have held many more than 6 bodies (even small ones from those times).  I’m pretty sure that the mound had more beneath it, I know they had taken out pottery and beads and other important possessions from some of them but not sure about the bodies?? or would they have disappeared after 4000 years? I should have read a bit more in the museum shouldn’t I?

Hilary and Di went into the other accessible chamber too, it was more a tunnel which cut through the mound with a metre or so of rocks on top at the mound’s peak. You couldn’t go all the way through though as there were large rocks obstructing much of the exit.

After visiting the four mounds we walked a bit further south to a field with a line of large standing stones, and then across another field and road to two stone circles, before retracing our steps to the museum. Did I tell you it was sunny all the way?

Three photos above are of these stones, now arranged in church yard

A device for determing time with sun and moon

The first burial mound (The Glebe)

The second (with sliding trapdoor)

The third with tunnel

The third from another angle

Standing stones

Temple Wood Stone Circle

Note sun-glasses!!! outside the Glebe

At the museum I played with Hilary, grinding wheat by hand. There were two methods, one a stone is held and ground against the wheat which is in a dug out rock. Very slow and laborious, would have kept someone (or a few someones) permanently employed. Once pretty well powdered the whole lot would be sieved to remove the husks. The sieve was a round flat thing with shallow sides made from bound canes/thin shoots which were in a spiral. The flour would slip through the cracks and the husks remain behind.

The second system was much quicker but would have been a good work out. This was two large thin cylinders of rock which sat on top of each other. The bottom one had a small (about a centimetre diameter hole in it, the top one about 3cm diameter hole. The wheat was placed in the pit formed by the difference in the holes, then a wooden plug with a centimetre diameter hole in the middle placed on top. A stick which fitted into the centimetre hole snuggly was then placed in the hole to hold the two rocks in line. The top rock had indentations  worked into it to allow another stick to be held in them to enable the grinder to spin the top stone on top of the bottom one. This would grind the wheat beween the two stones, the flour would fall out the outside of the stones and the husks would remain trapped. Very ingenious, but as I said, the operator would get good arm and shoulder muscles (who needs a gym eh?)

Grinding with two stone cylinders

Sifting the flour

I also did some brass rubbings (well crayon on white paper) of some Egyptian like animals, a boar and a ……. I can’t remember and it was only two days ago!!!

We had a look around the museum (I obviously should have paid more attention), before having lunch in the van, and heading north.

Just a cool, random tombstone/thingy

We called in at Arduaine Gardens a bit further north, nice enough but  not as showy as Crarae.  

Family lunch, Helensburgh, through to Inveraray

29.05.2011

We had a luncheon arranged with Alice and Steve, their daughter Pam and her husband Bob (Robert) and Alice’s two brothers Bob (and wife Paddy) and Jim (the eldest). I think that makes them 2^nd cousins once removed to Di, and Pam is her third cousin, I guess that makes Hilary Pam’s 4^th cousin is that right? Diana’s great grandfather (Colonel Robert Law) and Alice’s great grandmother (whose name was Alice McKenzie Law) were brother and sister. 

In the morning the weather was intermittently freezing cold showers and then fine spells, then freezing showers…. On and on.  We intended going for a walk up the hill behind the Glengoyne Distillery (where the water is sourced for the whisky) but we didn’t trust the weather so instead went in the opposite direction to Aberfoyle where there were/are a number of walks in the forst and up the “Fairy Knoll” and a little more sheltered than the exposed tops of the Glengoyne Hill. Unfortunately we aren’t made of as stern stuff as the Scots so when the weather closed in just as we were about to embark on our morning walk we opted instead for a browse through the information centre followed by morning tea (coffee cake/Victoria Sponge/chocolate cake shared three ways).

We headed back to Endrick House in time for a banquet prepared by all, except us. We had a wonderful afternoon chatting, laughing, eating and being entertained by all, really congenial and convivial lot, very welcoming and warm of/to kin (and I imagine non-kin as well), it was just like being amongst New Zealand family, that closeness even though we hadn’t met before.

Steve and daughter Pam

Alice's brother, Bob

Alice's brother, Jim

Steve and Paddy (Bob's wife)

Steve and Alice

Pam and her husband, Bob (Robert)

Saturday evening we spent with Steve and Alice, they had given Hilary a book on British Wildlife which had a big section on birds. Hilary is devouring the information, reading about the birds, their appearance, habitats and all, and can identify many.  Saturday afternoon/evening we put out a whole lot more birdseed into the feeders (wild-bird seed we had bought in Keswick in the Lake District), the Scottish birds enjoyed it too. Many finches, great tits (what a name!!) sparrows (house, tree and hedge (aka dunnocks). Hilary compiled a tally of what she was observing, she had the feeders labelled, 1, 2, 3 and the peanut feeder separate along with the bird table (five observation points in all), she spent hours documenting exactly when she commenced and ended her observations, and the number of different birds (and types) at each station.  I keep meaning to get her to enter the info onto Excel (which she tells me she knows how to do) and then help her make some charts and graphs to post on her blog. She has learnt about tally graphs at school so I must continue with that with her, about something which has interest and meaning for her.

The five of us, Sunday morning

Sunday morning we packed up the van and left Alice and Steve’s laden with produce and other mostly consumables. We have a truck load of alcohol of unknown potency or type,  much of it gifts to Steve from friends/colleagues in Denmark, Iceland, Holland …. Time will tell…. I hope I can still blog in days to come. We also were plied with cheeses, oat cakes, chocolates…. Incredibly generous people we are thrilled to have met and spent time with. Thank you Steve and Alice.

We drove to Helensburgh (we had to go didn’t we) where Alice had arranged for us to meet John Stirling (who is more distantly related to Diana) and his wife Isabelle, for Sunday lunch at their house. Diana’s great great Aunt was John’s great aunt by marriage (and Alice’s grandmother)… whew no wonder they talk about seven degrees of separation when you start following down the lines like that.

Helensburgh "Marine Parade"

We had been going to go to some gardens south of Helensburgh but we lost a bit of time with a wrong turning, and the weather was not conducive to lovely walks in the garden!!!

Instead we had another lovely meal with family before we went with Isabelle to visit Hill House which is a National Trust Property in Helensburgh.  Isabelle is a volunteer who works at Hill House telling people about the property, and also ensuring people behave, by not taking photos or touching things. Hill House is stunning. It was designed by Charles Rennie McIntosh for the Blackie family, and also he had control over the design and decoration of some of the interiors. McIntosh was an architect and designer in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, this house constructed in 1903 or thereabouts. McIntosh’s style was Art Deco with very clear lines and symmetry, and lighter colours. His designs for furniture and fittings were equally as stylish as was the garden, all following the clean symmetrical lines and patterns. Somehow I do happen to have a few photos to illustrate what I am talking about, but of course they were snaps rather than perfectly judged and lined up studies. (I wonder why!!), I promise I’ll try not to let anyone publish any photos and break any copywrites, and we did buy postcards as well. I didn’t use a flash, and I certainly didn’t touch anything. I can’t help myself, it was all so gorgeous.

Reading her bird book while we walk in Charles Rennie McIntosh's garden

From Helensburgh we drove on up past Loch Lomond on the Western side, windscreen wipers swishing, wind buffeting… through to Inveraray, a pretty little Loch side town which was pretty sleepy on Sunday night even though it was another Bank Holiday weekend. 

Scenes of Inveraray

We found a place on the side of the road, well slightly up a forestry road where we settled in for the night and enjoyed a largely sunny evening.

Our van is the white spot in the middle background

It rained on and off during the night but when we awoke at 0530 it was sunny with barely a cloud in the sky. We were excited, almost euphoric in fact at the prospect of a sunny day, precipitation free. We were premature with our glee and plans, by 0630 it was raining heavily and the sky was dark!!

This behaviour (the changing of sky and rain presence continued for the day, but we made the most of our time. First thing we drove back into the town (we had gone south last night to find a suitable place to park) and visited the Inveraray Jail. It was similar to the Perth (Australia) jail experience though this was much smaller. They had displays about the horrendous punishments meted out to people in the 1700s and thereabouts, sometimes for relatively trivial deeds, sometimes not. I mean hanging is just part of it, but sometimes they would cut off hands first, burn letters into faces with branding irons, having metal masks with tongue screws in screwed to your face and tongue for supposedly saying mean things about the big men of the town (and that was a young woman), lashings with birch branches, having your ear nailed to a post (with you still attached)………

Apparently this jail wasn’t so bad (and the views across the Loch were pretty good). There is an old bit and a new bit, though cramped at times the conditions weren’t so bad (not that I would have liked it) but it got central heating long  before the majority of local people, the inmates got three meals a day and a roof over their heads. They had baths (compulsory, every two weeks) and a doctor was in attendance with weekly examinations for inmates.  If you were transported to Australia you didn’t fare so well, the holding prison in England was not of the same standard, it was riddled with disease and often those incarcerated there while waiting for the ships to come back (often up to 8 months)didn’t survive. Those that did survive long enough to get on the ship, often didn’t get off alive having contracted disease on the voyage or just succumbed in transit.

The prison experience had a mixture of actors playing the parts (inmates or guards) to tell you their stories or really good models with audios to go with the visuals.  It was really well done, and after the initial feeling of distaste and squirming at reading some of the earlier punishments it became an interesting, informative and enjoyable experience.

From here we stopped at the open air museum at Ach???? Can’t remember, which had displays about the crofters and their lives. We didn’t end up going in to the display, partly slight disinterest from me and Hilary, partly cost for something we weren’t totally enthusiastic about, and partly it was bloody cold and wet and it involved walking outside a lot, so instead we had lunch in the van in the car park, watched the rain fall, had a quick visit to some highland cows and then headed south along the banks of Loch Fyne.

I was keen to visit a National Trust Garden (Crarae Garden) which is renowned for its rhododendrons and other Himalayan plants/trees. The others weren’t so keen but that is one of the advantages of being the driver!!!!!  I said if they preferred to stay in the van and read while I risked the rain that was Ok by me, but once they saw the weather had cleared they decided to go with me. I think they are pleased, the gardens/woodlands were really beautiful with plenty to occupy and distract, fallen rhododendron flowers were collected as were coloured leaves, trees were admired, rivers and waterfalls gushed over, a children’s quiz was mostly completed and cane pandas, deer, otters searched for amongst the trees and shrubs. And….. it stayed sunny for nearly the whole adventure, and we didn’t need our umbrella at all!!!!

We were doing really well with our time today so we drove on south to Lochgilphead around the coast before turning at right angles to head north again up towards Oban and the Highlands.

We stopped briefly at Kilmartin, which I'll talk about in my next post, and stopped for the night at a little spot near a forestry road just north.