Saddell Abbey Remains

18.5C bright and cloudy. Still hazy. Zephyr.

When Maeve the Deerhound got up this morning she was holding her back right leg off the floor. You may or may not remember the day back in February 2015 when she had been to the vet's and had teeth out. I most certainly do. That evening after a long post anaesthetic sleep she tried to get up and after crying for a while and much help stood on three legs for a very long time before we finally got her settled. However, today she was dabbing the paw down before I was ready to take her out and by the time we got back from her short walk she was walking on all fours again. We are sure she was exhausted by the walking in the heat yesterday over in Cowal ... although we had deliberately not walked as much as we used to when visiting Cowal when we have often walked most of the second section of the Cowal way (and back). We decided on a more restful day today.

This morning we drove up the East side of the Kintyre peninsula to Torrisdale bay, just South of Carradale, which looks across the Kilbrannan Sound to the West coast of Arran. We had a wander about on the little beach. There were one or two seals to be seen out in the bay. Oystercatchers are nesting on the beach. Maeve was off her lead but stuck close to my side. She did venture into the water but just stood there rather than paddling. There were a few spots of rain. I put Maeve back in the car and Apothecary7 and I had another walk on the beach to have a look for interesting little bits of driftwood.

For lunch we drove up to Carradale to try a cafe we had been told about ... it was closed.
Is there a theme developing !
We did find a bar/restaurant nearby and had some lunch before setting off back towards Campbeltown. On the way back we stopped at Saddell to see if we could find the remains of Saddell Abbey. There was a well marked little car park and only a very short walk to a purpose built shelter for late medieval grave slabs carved in the Argyll school style then the graveyard within which the Abbey remains stand. The stonework of the Abbey was robbed out in later centuries for building, most probably for Saddell castle (Bishop of Argyll) and Saddell house.

Maeve has been resting this afternoon.

E-PL5 f/6.3 1/200 sec. ISO-200 14mm